The Assignment
by DrakeTheTraveller
Summary: One year before the events of the Lylat Wars, Venom revolutionaries seek to destabilize the tense diplomatic relations between the Terran Coalition and the Cornerian Republic. Knowing this, a clandestine Terran PMC firm is hired by Gen. Pepper to insert an undercover operative to watch over a cornerian VIP who's fate ties in directly to the state of negotiations.
1. Chapter 1

The Assignment

Prologue: Black

"So….he's the one? The one you're selecting for this assignment?"

"Correct, he's the only person in the entire organization that met every of the requirements."

"…I still have my doubts, Arkillian. I've sifted through his dossier. Apathetic of his own life and those irrelevant to the operation, signs of mental instability, prone to eruptions of uncontrollable rage, social disassociation…that's just the tip of an exceedingly towering iceberg."

"I'm well aware of that General. I know him better than anyone else. Besides, you said so yourself. You studied his profile, you should understand why."

"I understand why. It's a surprise that after his upbringing that he's this stable at all. But that's the issue, Arkillian. He's unhinged, chaotic at best. I don't think it's possible for a person like that to adapt to what I'm asking for. He's unsuited for undercover residential life, he's too damaged. He could suffer from a mental breakdown. He could even potentially go berserk and start killing."

"Everything you've said is true, General. But you told me you wanted a soldier. Not just the best, but someone capable enough to get the job done professionally and without failure. He's scored at the top of the boards in drill and has never failed in any mission he's taken. Sergeant Black comes with my highest recommendations."

"You better be right, if he fails, diplomatic relations with our two governments will collapse and there are many predictable outcomes to that….as I am sure you are aware of."

"I know what's at stake, General, and my commendation still stands unchanged. Sergeant Black is the most suitable candidate, even with his…irregularities."

"Very well…I wish to speak with him before I sanction anything."

"Of course, I anticipated you might. The sergeant is waiting outside, I'll send him in."

The door to the small room opened and a shadow exited. Moments later, another one took its place.

"Sergeant Black, Arkillian seems to believe you are the best person for the contract. I disagree. Convince me otherwise."

"….."

"Sergeant…?"

"General…"

"Are you not going to even try and convince me?"

"No."

"I see….a person of few words I take it?"

"Nothing needs to be said."

"Hmm…you are definitely not my first choice Sergeant, nor my second, third, or even tenth. However, your organization is the most reliable and honorable. Therefore I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, of which I have much. In any case, you have the mission."

"As you say…General."

"Since I have a feeling you will not ask, I will inform you of the stringent conditions. They must be upheld at all times otherwise the contract is canceled effectively immediately."

"…Conditions?"

"As long as you are in our territory, you will not unnecessarily endanger the lives of our citizens nor cause untoward damages to both public and private property, no matter whatever persecution you may suffer. You will obey our laws and will be subject to our authority. This is a clandestine operation. That means that no one outside the chain of command and certain planetside operatives will know of your real purpose once you arrive. If your cover is blown, that will result in immediate termination of the contract, and may be imprisoned for an unknowable length of time. It is entirely possible that you may never be released. Conversely, you will obtain a document shortly after you land from one of my most trusted friends. Show it to any officer of the Defense Force and no questions will be asked. This'll only work so far, so don't do anything too crazy. Furthermore, if you manage to recover any data relating to the terrorist group responsible for this assignment, you will receive additional bonuses to your set fee once you turn it in. Do you accept?"

"….Agreed."

"Good. I will allow for your HMCF to be stationed in orbit, _only_ to be deployed in dire emergencies. In addition to your HMCF, your standard equipment and even your ECS will be ferried down and bypass processing, although strict conditions will be placed on your ECS. Once you arrive at your residence, it will be unloaded along with the rest of your gear. Any further resources you might need will have to be requested at a yet to be specified location. A transmitter will be placed in your residence to receive and make encrypted communications to myself and your organization. Do not use it for anything else."

"Affirmative."

"Are you aware of the details of this job?"

"No."

"Interesting….in that instance, the specifics will be given to you by my contact once you reach the starport. They will also take you to your place of dwelling and drop you off. Do not open the data packet until you are inside."

"By your orders, General."

"Now, you are dismissed."

The General watched as the Sergeant exited and sighed heavily as he leaned back and turned it to look out upon the stars.

"I hope I haven't made a grave mistake."


	2. Chapter 2

The Assignment

Chapter 1: Unpacking

The automated transport shuttle vibrated erratically as it traveled down to the surface of the blue and green marbled world below it. Its hull glowed a dull cherry red as it entered the atmosphere. The shuttered further increased as it fought with gravity to keep its nose level. A few minutes of the violent vibrations and everything started to settle down, allowing the shuttle to coast on the air smoothly, gliding to its intended destination without any more difficulty. Inside the shuttle craft a single person sat strapped to one of the many seats anchored into its hull. Usually the ship would be full of people heading down to the surface, but this had been privately reserved for the sole occupant.

The person inside had remained motionless and silent as the ship made its frenetic journey down to the surface, seemingly unfazed by the violence of the voyage. Rather, they sat stoically, hands clasped firmly in their lap and head bowed, staring intently at the deck of the small shuttle. They were almost meditative, expending a minimal amount of energy for anything, even thought. Secured next to them was a large black duffle bag, carrying all of their worldly possessions.

Once they felt gravity returning, they knew that the ship had entered the atmosphere and they unbuckled themselves from their seat, rising and doing the same for their bag before slinging it onto their right shoulder. The ship still rocked unsteadily as it started its descent to one of the starport's many runways, but the person's black leather boots remained firmly planted on the deck and they hardly shifted as it hit the ground and slowed down. They walked towards the rear of the shuttle and waited in silence for the ramp to descend. Once more they stood unmoving, not a single twitch or telling movement made.

The shuttle finally stopped moving and moments later the ramp hissed and the hydraulics slowly started to pull it down to the tarmac. Bright yellow light slowly crept into the bay of the shuttle and lit up their icy blue eyes and pale visage. With purpose, they marched down the ramp and onto the heated black tarmac, heading towards the large assemblage of building in the distance.

As they walked, they studied their surroundings intently, scanning for possible threats or dangers. So far, they counted more than half a dozen perfect sniping positions and possible ambush points. Someone could easily pick them off using the control tower to his left or after accessing one of the rooves of the main complex. The person took a deep breath and reminded themself that it was a civilian location and not a warzone. All the same their hardwired instincts born of many warzones and brushfire conflicts pointed out that many of the best locations to attack were from such places as this.

With a slight growl and shake of their head, the person doggedly continued their march forwards, nearing the main building and stepping inside. They treaded passed a few empty hallways and made it to the center of the structure. They had been told that their contact would be waiting for them at the northeast corner by a blue and white pillar. They had also been told that their contact would be easy to pick out from the others.

The person stiffened just before walking out into the main thoroughfare of the starport. There were hundreds of individuals there spread out through the entirety of the building on every of its three levels. Each and every one of them could be a potential assassin or previously unknown threat. Their instincts were burning on overdrive and their eyes strained to see anything that could potentially mean that an ambush was in wait. Eventually, after seeing nothing that posed an immediate threat, they forced themselves to step out into the open.

When a marksman's deadly attack did not find them, they composed themself as well as they could in their situation and continued on. As they traveled towards the northeast section of the port's main facility, they could feel hundreds of eyes following their every move and they had to forced themself to remember that it was not because they were all assassins but rather that they were an unusual sight on the planet they were on.

Still, the eyes of so many predatory races made them uneasy and a hand was ever present at their side in case of danger. Thankfully, nothing happened and they made it to the northeast corner without incident. As they approached, they heard a very excited voice.

"Mr. Black, Mr. Black!"

The man turned to see an individual standing by the pillar, holding a retro cardboard sign and waiving a paw at him enthusiastically. He studied the strange canine as he hesitantly approached. He had not been expecting a greeting like that.

The canine looked to be a pittbull of some sort, with a short snout that was currently pulled into an excessively friendly smile filled with a row of fangs. He was wearing a mostly blue uniform with white stripes on the sides of the sleeves and lapels. He must have been his contact, but the man still found it hard to believe. The dog did not look like much of a threat and he was confident that he could disable him if he had to so he cautiously approached.

"Mr. Black, right?" The canine asked for clarification and a hint of worry on his muzzle as he looked over the taller man's shoulders. "I don't see any others of your kind here."

He silently nodded in response.

The canine's muzzle dropped in relief and he exhaled. "Awesome…" Before he continued though he stopped and took a better look at the man in front of him, or rather kid. He was taller than himself true, but he just had that air of youth, although the canine felt that it was tarnished by something he couldn't detect. "I don't know you humans very well, but aren't you a little young for all of this?" The canine was certain that the man in front of him was no older than 17 possibly 18. He couldn't have been any older than his own son, and for some reason that sparked a small amount of fatherly concern. But he reminded himself of the importance of their mission and held it down. Although. He did allow himself to question why they would send someone so young.

The kid shook his head silently in denial.

The canine deflated a little bit and scratched behind one of his floppy ears nervously. "Heh, not much of a talker are you."

Black nodded.

The canine sighed and returned to his previous air of friendliness. "Well, my name's Lieutenant Thomas Grey. But you can just call me Tom….if you even talk." The canine added with an additional sigh as he studied the kid's impassive face. "Anyways, take this." Tom held out a small data chip that the man then took and pocketed. "That contains all the mission data, don't lose it."

The kid nodded and surprised the canine when he spoke.

"When are we leaving?"

His voice was quiet and reserved, although there was firmness in it that Tom could respect.

Tom bobbed his head in acknowledgment. "Oh right, of course. Just follow me and we'll head to my car." The dog motioned for the kid to follow him and walked out of the terminal's doors and into the parking lot. It unnerved him though, the kid's silence. At that age, Tom had been unable to keep his mouth shut for very long. _'My son's no different.'_ The canine thought proudly. But this human kid had very few words to say it seemed. Not only that, but he didn't fidget around or look nervous in the slightest. If their roles had been reversed and Tom was back to that age, he would have been a nervous wreck. It was a lot of pressure to put onto a grown man, let alone a teenager. And from what he had been told, the kid would be putting his life on the line more than a few times. How could the General condone such a mission with one so young? Then again, there were plenty of seventeen year olds in the army at the moment, so Tom supposed it was just his fatherly instincts taking over. He wasn't going to let his son join the Defense Force until he was at least twenty.

Tom stopped in front of his governmental issued hover car and opened the passenger door for the kid. The young man nodded in thanks and leaned into the vehicle. Tom closed the door and entered the driver's seat, pressing the start button and activating the hydrogen engine and lifting it a few feet of the ground. As he cruised towards the lot's exit he glanced back at the kid next to him.

Black was sitting rigidly in his seat and staring straight ahead with his hands folded neatly atop the duffle bag in his lap.

Tom shook his head ruefully. _'Kid's got more discipline then half the guys I know.'_

"So, what's a kid like you doing working for an organization like _Aegis_?" Tom was hoping to shed some light on his temporary charge and hopefully learn a little more.

The kid did not respond for a few minutes, surprising the canine when he showed visible emotion for the first time. Black's blank expression faltered for a mere second, revealing to Tom what looked like a kid with a hell of a lot of emotional baggage. He didn't know human faces all that well, he had only ever interacted with a few, but he did know genuine and profound pain when he saw it. Once more he felt his paternal instincts kick in and he had to hold himself back from placing a comforting paw on the young man's shoulder.

"You don't gotta say if you don't want to, son." Tom told him, slipping in son subconsciously.

The kid nodded, showing a small amount of gratitude, and returned his face into the impenetrable mask he saw before.

The rest of the car ride was spent in silence and two hours later he stopped the car in front of a mid-sized two story house in an urban area. It was just outside the city center and near the Sierra Military Academy for young cadets. Tom didn't know much about the mission the kid was on other than it was all very hush hush and extremely vital for continued progressive relations for his government and the humans. The location to drop the kid off was surprising, as he lived only a block or so away. Tom wondered why he had been placed in such a place and what the details of his mission were. But that was way above his pay grade. All he could do was what he was told to and hope for the best.

"Alright, here we are." Tom announced as he cut off the engine to the car and it slowly coasted down to the pavement as the engine cycled down. The canine looked to the kid who was still sitting silently, staring straight ahead as if something momentously important sat there and only he could see it. "You alright there…?"

Black nodded simply and opened the passenger door, climbing out without a word and grabbing his bag. Tom watched as he gently closed it and turned, walking towards the house. Next to the door sat a mountain of large containers. Those must have been the rest of his stuff. It looked like too much for one person to handle.

Tom couldn't let the kid do all of this on his own and so he stepped out of the car and walked over to him. By that time the kid had the door open and the first box already sitting inside the small empty foyer.

As Black walked out of the house he stopped and watched as the canine approached, and Tom could see the hesitance and caution in his eyes.

"You look like you could use an extra pair of paws." Tom picked up one of the boxes and groaned. _'Damn thing's heavier than my mother in law!'_

The kid nodded and his guard dropped a fraction and he walked past Tom, picking up a similarly sized box with little to no effort. As Tom followed him inside he shook his head in amazement. _'How strong is he?'_ Tom was no pushover, he was one of the strongest guys in his flight, but this kid was showing him up. Black didn't look that strong, his arms were muscled for sure, but they weren't packed, he looked more streamlined. It was like comparing a cargo and fighter jet. Tom was shorter and stockier; the kid was taller and thinner. Yet it looked like the fighter jet could hall just as much as a cargo jet and more. Tom set down the heavy box in the middle of what looked like the living room. The place was barren, whitewashed walls and grey carpeted floors. The only thing's there were the outlets for electronics. Black passed Tom and placed another box next to the canine's and left to grab another.

Tom retrieved another of the container's, noticing that it was one of the last. As he walked in, his left boot caught on the doorsill and he fell forward, dropping it onto the floor. It burst upon impact with a loud clatter and scattered its contents all across the entryway.

Tom held in a shocked gasp.

Lying strewn across the ground were over a dozen guns of varying variety, mechanical parts, and a plethora of other military grade material. _'All of this had been cleared by the General? What the hell is going on?'_ Tom quickly shuffled everything back into the box and picked it back up, placing it down next to the growing pile in the empty living room. All of those boxes must have been loaded with similar items. Black had enough material in his possession to equip a decently sized terrorist group. What was the poor kid involved in?

'Thank you…for the help."

Tom turned to see the kid standing behind him, arms clasped behind his back and spine straight as an arrow.

"Not a problem son, glad I could help."

Tom stretched and yawned. The sky was darkening and evening was beginning to make its appearance. Soon he would go home to the loving embrace of his beautiful wife and his kids. The day had been a long one and he had been waiting at the airport for several hours. He was eager to get home. And yet, as he looked around the empty and dark house his cheerfulness began to fade. What would Black be doing tonight? There was no family with him, no loved ones, just a new empty house and whatever mission he was here to accomplish. Once more he thought that he was far too young to be living like this. Tom wondered what happened to his childhood, his family. The canine felt a desire to reach out to the kid. Perhaps he could do something for him. Bill was about his age, and he was sure Karen wouldn't mind.

"You know…." Tom began, nervously ruffling an ear and looking around the barren house. "If you want, you could leave your stuff here and stop by my home. I'm sure my wife is cooking up something delicious and you could meet my son Bill. After dinner I could take you back here."

The offer hung in the air for a while and Tom was hanging on the human's response.

"No thank you. I need to take care of some things and unpack. The offer is appreciated." The kid replied simply. It was not a rude dismissal as far as Tom could tell. And he could see the small hint of discomfort the kid had at the offer and he nodded sadly.

"All right then, son." Tom reached into his pocket and pulled out a small circular drive and handed it over. That's my number, just slid it into your communicator and if you need anything give me a call." It was not exactly what he had been ordered to do. All the General wanted was for him to drop the kid off. But he felt that he had to do more.

Black nodded and placed the drive in the same pocket as the data chip he received earlier. "Affirmative."

Tom stood awkwardly for a few more moments before dusting off his paws and clearing his throat. "Allrighty then, I should get going now." He turned and headed towards the door, stopping just before he left and looking back. The kid was standing in the middle of the living room near the boxes and he looked lost. A pang of sympathy welded up inside him and he almost offered again, but he shook his head and stepped outside.

Tom climbed back into his car and started it. He gave one last look back to the house before driving off. It took him only a few minutes to get back home and at the sight of it he felt a little better, but not much. He parked in the drive way and climbed out, heading towards the steps and using his keys to open the door. As it slid open he was assaulted by the mouthwatering and savory scent of frying meat and his stomach growled fiercely.

He passed the entryway and peeked into the living room, seeing two figures on the couch, controllers in paw. Both were arguing good-naturedly and Tom could hear the TV as the sound of blaster bolts and explosions emitted from the speakers.

It looked like James's son had come over again, and he was probably going to stay the night, again. Fox was a good kid; he had a descent head on his shoulders. And besides, Tom and James were good friends. They had fought in the army together for a while before James left.

Tom was suddenly reminded of the kid he had just left on his own and his thoughts were dampened. The canine turned away from the living room and followed the sound and smell of cooking all the way to the kitchen.

He stopped in the threshold and leaned on it with a loving smile as he watched his wife cook. He had met Karen just before basic and after he finished they were already engaged. It had been fast and he had never regretted it. She was the most beautiful and loving Collie he had ever met.

Tom listened as she hummed to herself and sashayed around the kitchen, igniting the fires of passion in his soul. Tom crept up behind her and wrapped his arms under her own and rested his muzzle on her furred brown and white splotched shoulder and whispered tenderly.

"Hey beautiful."

She yipped in surprise and almost fumbled the bowl of pasta she had been holding until she realized who it was. He heard and felt her giggle and she twisted her muzzle to plant a kiss on his nose, the only place she could reach.

"Tom, you're back home!" She yipped happily and he felt her tail brush against his leg.

He nuzzled noses with her and nodded. "Yeah, just finished work for the day." He flashed back to the kid again and his smile faltered slightly.

"Tom what's wrong?" She asked worriedly. Placing the bowl down and turning to face him, concern in her warm hazel eyes.

He would have loved to tell her everything, but he was under strict rules to keep the truth hidden. That being said, there was no reason he could say a little bit.

"I met a kid today no more than seventeen years old. A human one, he's on his own here, nobody but himself."

"That's terrible! Why didn't you invite him over?"

"I tried, but he refused. I just can't help but feel bad. He's the same age as Bill." Tom sighed and held on to his wife tightly.

Karen held him and smiled softly, giggling as she did so.

"You're such a softy, Tom, and that's why I love you so much."

He grinned back at her, placing his paws in hers and kissing her deeply. After sharing the kiss for a moment he pulled back. "Yeah I know."

"Now go sit down, dinner will be ready soon, and I made your favorite, beef stroganoff.

Tom licked his lips and kissed her again. "You're the greatest."

"DAD!"

Tom turned his muzzle and saw his son walk in, followed by Fox.

"Hey son, Fox, good to see you." The canine greeted both teenagers, still grinning.

"Hello Mr. Grey." Fox said as he stopped beside Bill. Both kids looked tired, probably whittling their day away just like he had in his youth. _'To be a kid again.'_ Tom thought with a internal sigh.

The canine chuckled. "Fox, how many times have I told you? Just call me Tom."

'Right Mr. G… I mean Tom." The vulpine corrected himself with a smile.

"Ahh, that's more like it. So, Fox, how's your family?" Tom asked as he walked over and took a seat at the table I the kitchen.

Fox took a seat at the table along with Bill. "We're doing alright, although dad's gone a lot nowadays." There was a hint of sadness and disappointment in his tone and his ears were slightly folded.

"Yeah, James is really busy from what he told me. The place around Venom has been acting up more than usual lately. But don't worry too much about that. Things'll quite down soon enough."

"I hope so." Fox muttered as he dragged a claw across the table absently.

"So, son, I hope you're ready for the new semester starting next week." Tom said as he turned his attention to his son.

"Hehe, yeah of course I am." He tried to brush off. It was a pretty weak attempt.

"Good, because if you get grades like you did last semester, you can kiss your new Gamestation goodbye." Tom smirked.

Bill visibly gulped and nodded furtively. "R-right dad."

"Dinner's ready, boys." Karen announced as she walked over, placing a large bowl at the center of the table and passed out the plates and silverware.

"Awesome!" Fox exclaimed excitedly, eyeing the steaming bowl of food and salivating at the wonderful smell. "You make the best food Ms. Grey!"

She tutted and shook her muzzle.

"I mean Karen." The vulpine hastily changed his response.

Tom smiled and grabbed a spoon, pooling a massive portion onto his plate. Soon they all began to dig in and he watched as Karen chatted with Fox and Bill added his usual comments. As he did so, he once more thought back to the human kid who sat alone in his new home, surrounded by nothing but the gear he had and whatever else he brought with him. He wasn't enjoying a home cooked meal, or spending time with a loving family. And at that thought, the food in his muzzle didn't taste as great.

* * *

Inside the empty house, Sergeant Alastair Black, seventeen year old mercenary and war orphan, busied himself setting up the equipment he had in the hidden basement underneath the house. The far wall had a large communications system he just finished setting up and the wall to his left was racked with an arsenal of weapons. Standing in the corner was a seven foot figure, covered in smooth and angular armored plates, a multitude of wires plugged into ports all across its frame and back into a brace of monitors on stands beside it. A small selection of diagnostic tools were scattered about on a table to the thing's left.

Alastair finished hooking up his tactical suite into the house's main power grid and flipped it on, filling the screen with small text and human symbols. He was thankful that the translation software implanted into speech center of his brain was working at full efficiency. If it didn't he would be unable to complete his objective, whatever that may be and he had no desire to fail an assignment and break his perfect record.

The human waited until the tech finished booting up and he grabbed the data chip from his pocket. As he did so he felt the circular drive that the canine had given him.

The offer had made him uncomfortable, and he had waded through blood and gore without flinching. Alastair was not used to these social interactions. Tell him to infiltrate and butcher a terrorist group and he would do so without hesitation. Ask him to spend a day in a city and he would not understand what they meant. Civilians and even other mercenaries and soldiers baffled him. How they could so easily interact with each other was a mystery to him. How could they trust them not to stab them in the back? And what was the point of all that unnecessary talking? It did not seek to contribute to the success of the mission and proved to only be a distraction that the enemy could exploit.

And yet….

He found himself surprisingly tempted to take up the canine on his offer, for a reason he could not fathom. That's why he hated interacting with others. Everything was uncertain and strange feelings always welled up inside him. He had neither the desire of wish to stay here. The sooner he finished the mission the better. Alastair turned to discard the small disk drive and yet he could not find it in himself to let go. With a sigh he tossed it onto the computer next to him and inserted the data chip into the USB slot. In a few moments, the screen shifted and pulled up a file marked PHOENIX. He double tapped it and a list of smaller files popped up. He tapped on the first one labeled Debriefing. Inside was a document with a page's worth of information that he began to read.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Hello readers, I hope you all are enjoying the story so far and that the premise has peeked your collective intrigues. I am not one for leaving notes in the beginning as I believe they break the continuity of a story, but I felt it necessary to place a warning for this chapter and to a certain possible extent, future chapters. I intend for this story to be as real as I can make it and so that tends to mean that adult themes are bound to be prevalent. This will no doubt include extreme violence, nudity, sexual themes and situations, profuse language, and all that other fun stuff one will find in real life. And for that reason I have placed this disclaimer, if you are not at the age where it is suitable for you to read content of that level, then I suggest you leave now...or at the very least don't get caught while reading my stuff.**

 **This does not mean my story will have mindless profanity and lewd situations, there are plenty of other authors on this site that can supply that kind of stuff if you are looking for it but I am not one of them. I intend for everything to fit into the wide arc of the story I am planning on providing. All I ask is that you, the readers, take it all with a grain of salt and perhaps enjoy it. After all, just because I am not one for excessive situations I don't see why one can't enjoy reading a little pleasurable material every now and then.**

 **And thus concludes my long winded note, may you all enjoy the story ahead and do leave a review if you would be so kind. I do love to hear from you all. All I require is that if you have something to say about the story, that it is constructive and not mindless hate as I have seen other fellow authors and myself suffer from time to time. I appreciate any and all reviews you guys might leave, it makes me feel nice and warm inside! :)**

 **For reals this time, that's all.**

 **Enjoy my friends and have a wonderful day/night (choose which is applicable at your leisure)**

 **DrakeTheTraveller**

The Assignment

Chapter 2: The Academy

 **Operation: Phoenix**

 _ **Objective**_ **\- Secure the safety of chosen VIP until terrorist threat is eliminated. Find and uncover terrorist cells inside Corneria city and purge them, collecting any vital intelligence on their movements and operations. VIP takes precedence; terrorist cells are all designated secondary objectives. Do not blow cover unless otherwise would endanger the life of the VIP.**

 _ **Mission parameters-**_ **The VIP is one Fara Phoenix, heir to the military technologies contractor Phoenix Arms. The terrorist group, New Venom Revolutionaries (NVR), are privately funded and led by several radical humanists who wish to disrupt diplomatic negotiations with the Coalition and Corneria by kidnapping/assassinating the target VIP and stealing the research into astronautics currently being traded between both factions. If they succeed, it is predicted that all-out war would erupt between Corneria and the Coalition. The VIP is unaware of the development and her father wishes that it remains as such. The CDF will monitor for external threats and apprise you of any additional forthcoming information. Being stated, your task is to ensure the VIP's continued protection where the CDF is not able to.**

 **Fara Phoenix is currently attending the Sierra Military Academy, which you are as of this moment currently registered for the next semester in exactly six days' time. All the particulars have been ironed out and you will have noticed school supplies and a schedule inside one of your containers along with an incognito kit of weapons and equipment. Maintaining your cover, you will safeguard the VIP during and after school hours. After hours, you will monitor the VIP's residence and activities. DO NOT let the VIP discover the purpose of your transfer to the school unless otherwise would threaten to endanger the VIP's life. When time is made available, search for possible locations for NVR cells and eliminate them. If at all possible recover relevant data and contact the CDF intelligence division with this access code, Sentinel-A598736.**

 _ **Tertiary objectives**_ **\- Limit any and all property damage. Loss of civilian life without just reason is subject to immediate termination of contract and ensuing imprisonment. Relations with the Cornerian government is strained at best, we cannot afford to make any mistakes. If dying warrants the stability of diplomatic ties, you will become an expendable asset.**

 **Those are your orders until further notice. Failure is not acceptable.**

 **Good luck Sergeant.**

 **-Lieutenant Commander Varukt Arkillian of the** _ **Aegis**_ **PMC firm**

Alastair allowed himself to reread the material for the thousandth time in the past five days. He could not grasp why he had been selected for such an intricate and refined operation. He was one of the company's best HMCF operators and occasional assassin. This type of job was suited for one of the more subtle operatives. And they wanted him to attend a military academy? They knew that he was unsuited for a place like that. Just the thought of it made him shake with rage. What the hell was Arkillian thinking?

The teenager angrily drew away from the foldup chair in front of the computer and turned away to pace across the basement, deep in thought.

And a bodyguard position…?

He had no experience being a bodyguard. He had defended locations from attackers certainly, but this was something else entirely. There were too many unpredictable variables to guarding a person, and to top that he had to remain covert. Alastair could care less about his status as an expendable asset, that didn't bother him. He had been considered that before. But having to keep down collateral damage was something else he had little experience with. Usually the civilians had already vacated the area and any property damage was to be expected. Expending effort and time to ensure such precautions would sap his time and weaken his capabilities.

How did Arkillian expect him to juggle the task of watching over his objective, taking out terrorist cells, and guaranteeing little to no loss of civilian life? Not to mention he had to put time out of the day to attend some pointless academy and mingle with…people, alien or not it was all the same to him. Alastair had no desire to socialize. His job was all that mattered to him. The problem was that his job involved it.

And he was now down to one day left.

In less than twenty-four hours he would be forced to start the first day at that damned academy. Of course he had searched and downloaded the layout of the entire complex, preformed background checks on the staff, reviewed their policies and memorized any and all escape and entry routes. He had also located the home of his objective, which was in one of the more wealthy urban zones less than two kilometers from his safehouse. Alastair had also procured a vehicle for himself. He selected a hoverbike for its speed and maneuverability. Most of his time in the last few days had been spent retrofitting the vehicle, adding camouflaged armor plating and internal weapon mounts.

Alastair had checked his undercover kit and was at the least impressed with it. It came with a black leather jacket that had been treated with compounds that would allow him to carry a concealed sidearm in a seamless pocket on the interior of the coat and a combat knife that could not be detected on any known scanners. It also boasted limited protection from blasters and ballistic weapons, tailored with hidden armor segments and energy resistant fibers that would disperse most of the heat and power of most manufactured laser based weaponry.

The BDU pants had similar properties and additional seamless pockets for supplementary ammunition. His communicator was outfitted with top-of-the-line military grade receivers, surveillance equipment, and hacking software.

He had everything he needed to complete his mission, and yet he still felt uneasy about the entire thing. Alastair spent the rest of the day and evening preparing and drawing up contingency plans for what he would encounter on this world. He knew that racial tension was a very real possibility for him and he had already calculated it into his contingency plans.

He would need to be in peak condition before the assignment and so he made sure to arm the security system for his safehouse and get some sleep. Alastair went to the small cot in the corner of the basement and laid on it, leaving a sidearm underneath his pillow and setting the alarm on his communicator for early in the morning. The academy would be open to students at seven and he wanted to get there a little afterwards and scope it out. The schedule said that class started at eight and he was supposed to head to room 100 for the start of the day. _'I can't believe this.'_ Alastair thought to himself as he rolled on the cot and pulled the covers over his body. _'I've never even been to school before.'_

At least it was a military academy. He should feel a little more comfortable with it. All he had to do was think of it as a more casual boot camp, filled with hormonal alien teenagers.

Alastair sighed and closed his eyes.

' _Yeah, it'll be great.'_

* * *

An ear splitting guitar solo thundered in the huge bedchamber, the source a tiny holoclock sitting on an end table besides an enormous and lavish bed bolstered against the left-hand, bright blue coated, wall. The form underneath the downy comforter groaned tiredly and reached a black socked paw out to slam on the off button with conviction.

The sheets were pulled to the side and a groggy russet furred vixen propped herself up on the bed. Her long red hair sat frizzled in a rat's nest that obscured her petite slender muzzle. She huffed and her auburn hair puffed to the side, revealing a pair of sleepy emerald eyes.

"Ugh…Mondays."

The vixen mumbled unfavorably and rolled out of bed her massive bed. She wore a pair of heart patterned pajama bottoms and nothing else, leaving her mid-sized breasts exposed to the frigid air of her room. Shivering, she folded her furry arms over her bosom and started to move about her room.

Still barely conscious, she meandered over to the large oaken dresser standing solitary by the huge window overshadowing an expansive marbled courtyard. She pulled open one of the many drawers and began to rifle through it in a search for an outfit for the day.

"Too modest…too revealing…too red…not enough red…" She muttered absentmindedly as she tossed clothes around. "There, perfect." She proclaimed to herself as her paws landed on a dark blue pair of jeans and a crimson shirt with a band logo plastered on the front. With it in paw, she closed the drawers and headed towards one of the two doors in her room.

With a twist of a knob, she slid the dark brown lacquered portal and entered a tiled bathroom. The vixen walked over to the shower and turned it on, filling the bathroom with the sound of running water. She placed a furred digit on the small pad next to the shower stall and modified the temperature of the water until it was barley tolerable. She liked to take really hot showers.

While the water ran, she stripped out of her pajama bottoms and opened the glass door, stepping inside. As soon as the warm water hit her fur she let out a contented murr of pleasure and allowed herself a minute to relax under the firm pressure of the water. Once the water had soaked through her fur she reached for one of the many shampoo bottles hanging on a rack and placed a dollop of faintly pink gel in her padded palm. She rubbed her paws together until they were covered in foamy suds and lathered it into her dark russet pelt.

The vixen ran her clawed paws through her fur and admired her voluptuous frame.

' _I look good.'_ She thought to herself with a smirk as she felt her trimmed body.

She was one of the hottest girls at her school and the desire of most every guy, and she knew it. The vixen shifted her paws to cup her breasts and squeezed them softly with a quiet moan. They were firm and yielding in her grip as she teased her black nipples, feeling little sparks of pleasure flood through her nerves like fire.

The vixen snaked one of her paws down to her thigh and traced it leisurely to the center of her womanhood, running her furred digits across her vulva and fantasizing about some burly canine seducing her. She imagined her fictional lover running his paws tenderly through the fur on her back, using his claws to tease her along the spine.

Her paws increased their lustful tempo and she started to whimper quietly as the heat in her nethers rose. She glided a digit into her heated depths and began to push it in and out rapidly as fast as she could in an effort to quench the fires running rampant in her soul. Her legs wobbled and she finally buckled, sliding to the floor of the shower as she fingered herself, unable to hold her weight up any longer. Within moments her body seized up and she was overloaded with ecstasy as she surrendered to her scorching desires. Jolts of electricity shocked her system as she humped into the digit plunging into her and let loose a primal growl that had been trapped in her throat until she found release.

The bliss of her orgasm faded as fast as it hit her and she collapsed to the floor of the shower, panting heavily as she recovered from her intense experience. Five minutes after lounging on the tiled floor and relaxing in post-orgasmic delight she was ready to finish up her shower. The vixen took only a minute to wash her hair and muzzle before turning the handle and cutting of the slowly cooling stream of water.

She sighed in contentment before opening the stall door and stepping onto the shower mat and into the steamy air. The vixen grabbed a towel of the rack to her left and ruffled it through her damp fur. Once her fur was mostly dried she dumped the towel in the small hamper by the door and looked in the mirror. Her pelt was comically puffed out and she giggled a little at the sight, her long ears twitching in her mirth.

The vixen grabbed the heavy-duty brush and fur-dryer on the granite counter by the sink and spent over half an hour tending to her bushy fur, bringing it back to some semblance of order. She brushed herself from her long ears down to her black socked hindpaws, taking great pains to ensure that every hair was in line. Once she was satisfied she turned her attention to her tail and brushed it until it was puffed back to its luxurious self. She went over herself with the fur-dryer one last time until she was completely dried off and then grabbed the toothbrush and tube of toothpaste. She squirted a decent glob of the pearly white paste onto the toothbrush and jammed it into her muzzle, running it across her teeth and tongue to get rid of her morning breath and make sure her teeth sparkled brightly.

She spat out the mixture and turned on the faucet, gargling the cold water and washing the minty flavor of the toothpaste out of her mouth. The vixen grabbed her towel again and dried of her muzzle before slipping into her set of clothes for the day.

She looked at herself one last time in the mirror and marveled in her reflection. Her dark red fur shone brightly and her hair was groomed to perfection. The vixen gave a winning smile and saw her bleached white teeth and perfect pink gums. She subconsciously dusted off her clothes and nodded confidently. She was ready to go.

The vixen stepped out of the bathroom and shivered as the she was subjected to the change in temperature. She walked over to the side of her bed and picked up her communicator and noticed that the screen was flashing with _1 new message_.

She slipped the device onto her arm and tapped a clawed digit onto the screen and opening up the messaging app, reading the new electronic note.

' _You up yet Fara?'_

It was from her friend Miyu Lynx and after checking the time stamp saw that it had been sent while she was in the shower. The vixen's paw danced across the screen as she sent a response.

' _Yeah, was in the shower.'_

Fara lowered her arm and walked towards her bed, slipping on her pair of socks. As she stood up her comm device beeped again and another messaged popped up.

' _Good, school starts soon. You better not be late.'_

The vixen chuckled and shook her muzzle, slipping on her shoes.

' _I'm never late.'_

Fara slipped her backpack onto her shoulders and hurried out of her room. She crossed a long ornate hallway and reached a staircase, jogging down and heading towards the door. The house was completely silent and she was the only occupant. Her parents went out on a business trip the week before and wouldn't return for almost a month. But she didn't have anything to worry about, she had more than enough credits saved up on her card and she had spent most of her childhood on her own. The vixen grew to enjoy the freedom that busy parents gave her, although she did miss them at times. She would be happier when they came back.

She walked down the lengthy steps connected to her front door and across the stretched lane leading to the estate's gates. Her family was exceedingly affluent and it showed. Her home was more along the lines of a mansion then a house with four floors and acres of verdant gardens and courtyards. As with such wealth, her family had an equal amount of security. The entire outside was monitored 24/7 by a private security firm and the gates were heavily reinforced. Their estate was also walled off completely from the outside world.

The vixen entered the code for the gates and they ponderously drew open allowing her to slip out and into the public area. She swung onto the sidewalk and bounced along happily to the bus stop all the way at the end of the street. Her good mood could be attributed to the fact that this semester marked the second to last before she finished at the academy. She was training to become a test pilot for her father's company and she was eager to finish up and start on her career. She was a straight A student and a member of the school's cheer team. She had no doubt that she would have a chance to get the job.

Fara stopped at the corner and stood in waiting for the bus to pick her up. She glanced down at her communicator and saw that it was 7:00, which meant that the bus should be arriving at any moment. Even as she put her arm back down she heard the telltale rumble of the large hover vehicle and looked up to see it approaching, full of other students ready to start the new semester. In the back window, she spotted a familiar trio waving excitedly at her as the bus approached. An orange and black spotted feline and a white furred canine with a flashy pink bowtie in-between her long floppy ears. The last member of the troop was a pink furred cat with short snowy white hair.

The bright yellow bus stopped at the sign and the double doors peeled back. She looked up at the driver, an elderly tortoise and smiled as she climbed up the short steps. The vehicle was jam packed with teenagers and it was almost deafening as they all competed to be heard over the cacophony. Fara walked down the middle heading towards the rear where her friends were waiting. As she did so she noticed many of the males eyeing her openly and she could feel their attention glued onto her ass and breasts. She scoffed at them and pushed her way down the aisle and stopping at the very back to sit at the bench with her friends.

"Good morning Fara!" The excitable canine greeted happily, tail thumping in her lap.

"Morning, Fay." The vixen replied as she moved to sit in-between the two felines and dog.

"Are you ready for another semester of school?" The spotted feline inquired with a grin as she leaned forwards to look at her friend. "Just two left to go and then we're out of here."

"I can't wait for that, Miyu" She said with a sigh as she thought about it.

"Yeah, three years of bullcrap and now we're down to our final one." The pink cat added excitedly.

"What are your plans Katt? Are you still planning on becoming a pilot?" Fara's ears twitched as she heard the bus's engine start back up and she glanced out the window to see the street passing by.

"Sure am, just have to finish my last semester in astronautics and take one for flight training." The feline smiled at the thought and leaned back into the seat.

"Miyu and I are doing the same thing!" Fay added with a grin as she all but bounced in her seat.

"I think we all are." Fara said as she thought about it. "Although. We're going in for different reasons."

"We're going to join the Defense Force." Miyu replied. "You're going to be a test pilot and Katt's thinking off going private."

"I hope we keep in touch after all of this." Fay remarked.

"Of course we are!" Fara stated confidently. "We're friends for life."

"Yeah, you're not getting rid of me that easily." Katt chuckled.

They spent the next few minutes talking until the bus pulled up in front of the academy. Fara looked out the window and once more found herself in awe.

The Sierra Military Academy was massive, kilometers of empty space for the Academy's airfields and three main buildings. One was dedicated to engineering one was for pilots and astronautics, and the final structure was for the army. Thousands of students attended the institution from all corners of the Lylat System. You could find lylatians from the desert world of Papetoon, the oceanic paradise Zoness and the savanna dominated planet of Katina to name a few places.

The bus was emptied shortly and Fara watched as more pulled up to disgorge more students.

"Well…here we are again." Miyu sighed as she placed her paws on her waist. "After a short vacation it's back to books, problems, and trivial drama. And then there are those guys…" She muttered as she observed a familiar group of four males approaching them.

The leader of the pack was a bright orange furred vulpine with a constant friendly grin plastered on his muzzle. Everyone knew Fox Mccloud; his father was one of the most famous men in the Lylat system. Behind him was Falco Lombardi. No one knew how exactly he managed to get in the academy, but he was there anyways. The blue and red feathered bird was perhaps the most arrogant guy in the academy if you didn't count Wolf O'Donnell. It was hard to believe that the bird and Fox were friends. They butted heads so often she was sure that they would have been sworn enemies. Yet their rivalry seemed to only bolster their friendship. The last two members of the group were Slippy Toad and Bill Grey.

Slippy was studying to be an engineer and he was the smartest guy any of them knew but that didn't save him from the wrath of bullies. The poor toad was just too easy of a target. Short and round he wasn't much a fighter. Thankfully the other guys watched out for him and now only the stupidest person would try and pick on him. Bill Grey was a boisterous and playful canine and was not one of the smartest. But he was a decent guy all around and not that bad a looker either. His father was a member of the CDF and he wanted to follow in his footsteps.

Fox's grin widened as he neared the group of girls and he waved. "Hey there!"

"Hey Fox, brought the whole gang with ya I see." Katt giggled and casted a flirtatious wink towards Falco's way, but she frowned when as usual it completely flew past him.

"Of course, I thought we'd all get together before we had to head to our homeroom."

"It's good to see you all again." Fara said with a grin.

"You too, Fara!" Slippy spoke up.

"It's been a little while." Falco added with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Oh come on Falco!" Bill exclaimed, throwing a muscled arm around the avian's shoulder. "That's no way to greet your friends!" The loud canine turned to Fara and yelled from right next to Falco's ears. "It's great to see ya!"

"Keep your loud mouth shut!" Falco grumbled and pushed the dog away and making him chuckle.

Fox shook his muzzle at their antics. "You two never get along."

"Not my fault." Falco retorted, sticking a finger into his ear and glancing at the canine still grinning stupidly behind him.

"All right, all right settle down." Fara chuckled.

They've all been friends since their first year at the academy and by now, this was all pretty standard. As they talked, most of the other students had cleared out, heading into the main buildings before the bell rang for them to head for class.

"We should probably head inside now." Fay suggested as she noticed the low amount of fellow students.

"Fay's right." Fox agreed. "We don't want to be late on the first day."

They all started to head towards the main doors of the flight building when they heard a far off rumbling. The sound slowly began to rise until a sleek black hoverbike sped down the corner at incredible speed and drifted hard to the left, sliding into the parking lot. The engine growled noisily and the rider was completely concealed behind a slim obsidian helmet, leather jacket and gloves.

'Who's this hotshot?" Falco grunted, unimpressed by the entrance.

"Hey look, they don't have a tail!" Slippy pointed as they watched the person step off the bike and kill the engine.

"That's strange." Fox muttered.

The driver of the hoverbike reached towards their head and pulled the helmet off.

* * *

Alastair pulled the helmet off his head and pressed the button on the inside, making it fold up into a small rectangular cartridge that he slid into his jacket. The human was unhappy with himself, he was later then he wanted to be because he had been caught up in street traffic. Some sort of crash on the highway had congested the roads and he only now managed to get to the academy.

He glanced up from his bike and looked around. Thankfully it looked like still had some time yet as there were still other people standing around. His observation was halted abruptly when he spotted his objective amongst a large party of her fellows. He identified her easily thanks to the picture he had in her dossier. But the other lylatians around her were unfamiliar.

The vixen and her friends were staring at him openly and he turned away, remembering that he was not supposed to draw attention to himself. _'Easier said than done.'_ He thought grimly. It would be hard to remain off the radar considering he was possibly the only human on the planet at the moment. Once more he doubted the intelligence of his superiors and their plan.

Alastair activated the security system for his bike and made sure the bag on his shoulders was zipped up tight. He straightened his jacket, (checking to make sure that his weapons were not visible), and he took a deep breath. _'Then the king gave orders, and Daniel was brought in and cast into the lions' den.'_ Alastair reminded himself of that quote as he headed towards the building he knew to be his destination. It felt apt, especially considering the looks he was getting from all the locals.

As he neared the doors he noticed that his objective and her associates were in his way. Alastair did not even glance at them as he brushed past and entered through the doors.

"Who the hell was that?" Bill wondered as he stared at the closing doors.

"That was a human!" Slippy replied. He had heard his father talking about them a few times in the past. "They're from a star system not that far from Lylat. But I've never seen one here before."

"A human huh…?" Fara muttered thoughtfully. She didn't know why, but she was sure that they had been watching her. But it was a ridiculous thought and so she shrugged it off.

"What's a human doing at the academy?" Falco asked suspiciously.

At that Miyu chuckled and rolled her eyes. "Calm down bird brain. I doubt it's because of some crazy conspiracy. They're probably just some sort of transfer student or something. I wouldn't be all that surprised."

Before they could continue to speculate a high pitched ringing rolled through the air.

"Looks like school is starting, we should get moving before we're late!" Fay announced worriedly.

"We can worry about some human later." Fox said with a nod as they all jogged inside to head to their homeroom.

* * *

' _This is just fucking great.'_ Alastair thought with a growl as he stepped of the staircase and to his correct floor. It looks like all of the staff had been informed of his pending arrival and someone had been waiting for him inside. The male cheetah had insisted that he speak to the academy's dean before he went to class and so he had been forced to postpone his mission and follow the spotted feline.

After several minutes of walking he stopped at the dean's office where the dean (A portly hyena), had simply wanted to talk with him. _'This is why I hate people.'_ He growled internally. After that pointless talk where he was pretty sure the dean was worried he was a psychopath, he had to walk all the way to where his classroom was supposed to be. That wasn't even the worst part of it all. All that time, every lylatian he came across gawked at him brazenly and whispered to each other as if he could not hear them from across the hall.

"What is that thing?"

"I think it's a human. Yeah defiantly a human, my dad talked about them."

"Why doesn't it have a tail?"

"They don't need them apparently."

"Weird."

"Kinda ugly isn't it."

It took all of his willpower to not lash at them. _'I am not a thing!'_ He thought with a snarl. Instead he satisfied himself with staring down any that made eye contact with him, glaring with hard icy blue eyes. Tat at least silenced the majority of comments but probably did not do weal for his reputation. But he didn't care about his reputation with a bunch of alien teens. He was here to ensure the success of his mission and that was all. The sooner he eliminated the threat to that Fara Phoenix girl the sooner he could go on his way back to what he was used to.

"It looks kind a cute I think."

When Alastair heard that he stiffened slightly and almost lost his balance. _'What in the hell?'_ he shook his head in bewilderment and increased his pace towards the classroom at the end of the hall. The sooner he got to his objective the better.

The human stopped in front of the door and took another deep breath. _'This is it. It all starts now….the worst assignment I've ever taken.'_

With that thought lingering in his head he opened the door to the classroom and walked inside.


	4. Chapter 4

The Assignment

Chapter 3: School Life I

Alastair stepped into the classroom and quickly ran an inquisitive eye across it. The teacher's desk was in the center of the front of the area and there were about forty desks stretching from front to back. Almost all of them were occupied except for a two in the back and one at the front, directly facing the teacher's.

' _Full house…'_ He thought to himself absently.

He immediately spotted Fara Phoenix near the center of the room, surrounded by the same individuals from earlier so it was safe for him to assume they were her friends. The dark auburn furred vixen was deep in conversation with them and she looked safe enough for the moment. The teacher was sitting at her desk, some sort of tan furred feline, possibly a cougar, and all the students were chitchatting idly so it looked like he wasn't late for anything important. Slowly, their chatting started to die off as they saw the human standing in the doorway.

The teacher looked up from her computer when the noise level died down and shifted her muzzle to the door, and subsequently dropped it when she saw the human standing there. However, he gave her credit for quickly composing herself and standing up.

"You must be the human student." She clarified, more for the benefit of the class than for her, as all the staff had already been informed of him in advance.

In return he simply nodded his head. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the whole class staring at him and speaking in hushed whispers. All the stares were setting his fighting instincts on overdrive and he had to refrain from seeking cover at one of the empty desks, instead choosing to stand at parade rest. _'This is worse than my first day in basic training.'_

She mimicked his nod. "I am Ms. Larson, the homeroom teacher."

Alastair stood silently, watching as the teacher became uncomfortable. _'At least I'm not the only one.'_

"Uh…" The cougar scratched under her chin until she had an idea. She was probably the first lylatian teacher to have a human student. "Ah yes, why don't you introduce yourself to the class. Usually it's for first years and this is a senior course, but I think it would be a good idea. Tell us your name and a few things you like to do."

' _Shit.'_

"Yes of course, ma'am." He nodded his head slowly. He looked cool and composed, but behind his back, his hands were tightly clamped together and his heart was beating rapidly. He was barely able to keep the nervousness out of his voice. Something about the predatory eyes of the lylatians made him unexplainable perturbed. "My name is Alastair Black; I'm a transfer student from a small military academy back on Earth, our home planet. I served a year in the auxiliaries stationed on the military space station orbiting Saturn as a fighter pilot. My family died in the first system war when I was five and I have no known relatives. That was why I was selected for this relocation as there is nothing tying me down. I enjoy physical conditioning, martial arts, and flying." He spun a short tale with very little truth to it, but it was what he had in his documents. It was extraordinarily tame compared to his actual past. But judging from their looks it was something special. Most of them regarded him in awe.

"That is…an interesting background, Alastair." Ms. Larson said quietly, a look of pity on her muzzle.

Alastair was confused. What was there to be sad about? There were plenty of factual stories from more unfortunate people. He was hardly anything special.

"Any questions for, Alastair?" The teacher asked, looking to the class.

' _Damnit.'_ He had been hoping to sit down right after.

A paw was raised near the center of the room and Alastair noticed that it was the same orange furred vulpine that was near Fara Phoenix earlier today.

"Yes, Fox?" The teacher asked.

Alastair held back a disbelieving chuckle. _'His name is Fox? That's very original.'_

Fox looked to Alastair. "You said you were an auxiliary fighter pilot?"

"Correct."

The vulpine nodded thoughtfully.

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"So you must have been sixteen when you were doing that."

"Correct again."

"Your people allow kids to fight that young?"

"I…was a special case."

Fox nodded again. "Did you ever fight?"

"….A few times." Alastair answered simply.

"Have you ever k-"

"THAT's enough questions from you, Fox." The teacher cut in abruptly in a slightly alarmed tone. There had been a collective groan from all the students at that.

"Yes Ms. Larson." The vulpine accepted a little reluctantly. He had been really curious to have his next question answered.

"May I sit?" Alastair asked, turning to the teacher. He did not want to be in the limelight any longer.

"Yes of course, wherever you would like." The feline nodded easily, gesturing to the three empty seats.

He studied the selection and chose the chair in the far back left corner. It was the most tactically advantageous one and he would be able to keep an eye on the entire classroom and thus his objective, without attracting more attention than necessary.

With his seat chosen he walked down one of the aisles and sat down. The desk was a little small, designed for smaller lylatians rather than a human. But discomfort did not matter to him. What did, was that it would hamper his swiftness if he was forced to take action.

Things settled down after his introduction, although it was quite obvious that most of the class was not paying attention to whatever the teacher was talking about. They were far too busy sneaking glances at the human in the back and whispering to each other.

Alastair just tuned them out and focused on any possible threats. None of the students struck him as a terrorist, sure they were all obnoxious, especially that blue and red feathered avian, but they did not go off on his internal radar as hostile targets. Alastair pulled up his comms bracer and ran a scan of the nearby area. The device didn't pick up any known weapons signatures or encrypted transmissions. He did however; detect a rise in local communicator use. But he did not give that too much thought.

The class period eventually ended and the students began to file out, glancing back at him as they left. He waited until Fara got up to leave with her friends and after another minute of waiting he stood up from his seat and exited. The next class he was supposed to sit in was Lylatian, the equivalent of an earthen language class from what he gathered.

It was short walk away and he entered the classroom while it was mostly empty. The vixen and two of her associates arrived before him and took seats near the left side of the classroom. The instructor was another feline, this time a large muscles male panther standing by the doorway. It was interesting though, unlike his previous teacher, the panther was not that alarmed at his presence.

"Transfer student?" Was all he said as he raised an eyebrow and twitched a whisker.

"Yes sir, names Alastair Black." He replied simply.

The panther nodded. "Well than Mr. Black, you can call me Mr. Caroso. Sit anywhere you like. Class will start shortly." The obsidian furred feline gestured openly at the array of seats.

Alastair nodded and excused himself, choosing to sit in the back right corner this time. Other students began to troop in and a few were from his previous class. News must have traveled fast around the school, because it looked like most of the lylatians that entered the classroom had been expecting him to be there. Those that didn't stared at him all the way to their seats. Soon after they sat down began to converse animatedly with their friends.

He detected a commotion near his objective's desk and glanced over, placing a hand casually inside his jacket to the pocket where his sidearm was sequestered. But it was nothing more than a conversation between her, the canine from before and the toad as well. He took his hand out from under his jacket and allowed himself to relax. The terrorists shouldn't attempt something at the school, it would be too public. If anything, they would try right after or before.

Even with the threat debunked he allowed himself to listen in on their conversation.

"Oh come on, Fara. Just look at him. He's sitting there all by himself."

""Bill has a point. We could at least try."

There was a sigh. "I don't know guys."

"I'm just going to go try."

He watched as the pittbull got up from his chair and walked over. Instantly, all eyes locked onto their impending confrontation and He once more placed his hand inside his jacket. If necessary, a blade to the jugular would take care of him. Alastair had studied lylatian biology and knew where to aim for maximum damage and blood flow.

The canine stopped in front of him and stood there awkwardly. It looked like any sudden movement would set him off.

A small evil side of him was tempted to scare the dog in punishment for disturbing him, but he quickly strangled the childish thought. Instead he sat in silence and decided to wait him out.

Eventually the canine folded in to the uncomfortable silence.

"What's up?" He greeted casually, tail thumping uncertainly behind him. The canine oozed uncertainty and looked like he was starting to rethink his hasteful action.

"The sky…" Alastair stated mater-of-factly.

The dog chuckled weakly at that and stuck out a paw. "Heh got me there. My name's Bill."

Alastair stared at the proffered limb for a moment before accepting the shake. "And you know mine I assume."

"Yeah Alastair right, pretty exotic."

"I am an alien after all." He held back the desire to roll his eyes. _'This guy's your everyday genius.'_

"Right…so…" Bill shuffled his feet. The class bell chose that moment to ring and he shrugged, his meager attempt at a conversation halted. "I gotta go sit back down."

"You do that." Alastair replied as the canine walked away.

' _Strange. What had been the point of that? And why does he look so familiar?'_

Alastair put the short meeting out of his mind and tried to find a way to make time pass faster. He was not used to sitting around for so long. There was nothing really to pay attention to, class wise, since it was only the first day. And there was nothing else for him to really do until something happened.

After a time, class was over and everyone cleared out and into the hallway. Mr. Caroso bid him goodbye and Alastair left. His next class went pretty much the same way, except the teacher, an older vixen, asked that he introduce himself. He told his rehearsed story and received the same response as before. In that class there had actually been work for him to do, just some basic calculus that he had barely any trouble with.

The bell rang once more and class was dismissed. He pulled up his schedule and noticed that it was now time for lunch. _'_

 _That's going to be buckets of fun…'_

It was easy to find the lunchroom; all the students were congregating in the same direction. He just had to ride the wave. He was also starting to get accustomed to the constant whispering and poorly concealed stares, he just numbed himself to it and focused on getting through the day. Alastair was eager to get the school day over with. Then he could get back to his real job.

He entered the lunchroom and had to admit, it was pretty damn big. A thousand students could, (and did), fit inside, there were rows upon rows of tables and most were already full of young lylatians with their meals.

Alastair was hungry, (he hadn't eaten since the MRE he had a few days previous), but he didn't plan on eating any of the school food. He didn't trust any food he didn't prepare himself. So instead he looked for an empty table that was close to his charge and sat, waiting for lunch to end.

* * *

Fox watched the human as he took an empty table and sat down. He didn't get any food. He just sat there, staring off into the distance. The vulpine felt bad for Alastair. He couldn't imagine having to go to a school full of aliens. And he certainly couldn't imagine doing it on his own. From what he gathered, the guy didn't have any guardian, just his lonesome self. _'Poor guy…'_

"He looks so sad." Fay said empathetically from her seat next to him.

The whole group was at the table, Fara, Miyu, Fay, Bill, Falco, Katt, and Slippy. It was their tradition to all sit together for lunch.

"He looks more lost than anything else." Miyu pipped in with her belief on the matter.

"Can you imagine, being the only lylatian in a school full of humans?" Slippy shivered as he picked at his small pyramid of corndogs.

"I tried to talk to him, but he's a tough nut to crack." Bill added wistfully, recalling his awkward failure of introducing himself. "He's certainly a strange one I'll give him that." He added with a mumble as he picked at his homemade sandwich.

"Maybe he just wants to be left alone?" Falco muttered. "I know I would if you came around."

That elicited a round of chuckles from the group. "But for real, maybe he just doesn't want anybody bothering him."

"Maybe…." Fox mumbled thoughtfully to himself. "I want to know more about this fighter pilot business...sounds pretty crazy."

"Yeah, pretty young age for that." Falco agreed.

Both had a passion for fighters and that roused their curiosity for the human transfer student.

"I for one think he's lucky." Fara finally entered their conversation glumly as she attacked her salad with unchained ferocity. "All I want to do is fly ships and he's already done that."

"Yeah, but he's all alone. He doesn't have any family. That's not very lucky to me." Fay refuted with a frown.

"What do you think's running through his head right now?" Miyu wondered as she flicked her tail and studied his blank expression, her paw holding up her chin. She looked like a cat scrutinizing a particularly juicy mouse.

"He's probably just bored." Falco replied.

"I think he's scared." Fay suggested. "I know I would be."

"Maybe he's hungry." Slippy suggested.

"Of course you would think that Slippy." Bill said with a boisterous chuckle as he forcefully patted the smaller toad on the back. "Food's all you can think about."

"No." Slippy denied with a pout. "I'm just saying, he doesn't have any food with him and he might not have money for lunch."

Slippy's suggestion did make sense actually, now that they thought about it. It was possible that he didn't have any lylatian currency.

"Well…now I feel a lot worse." Fay whined. "He's probably sad, scared, lost, and hungry."

Falco groaned. "If he is, he's about to have it worse."

"Why, what's going on?" Fara asked curiously, looking up from the meager remnants of her salad.

"Wolf." Fox growled in response as he grimly watched his rival nearing the lone human's table, accompanied by his two meatheaded lackeys, Panther and Leon. Wolf had been his nemesis since middle school, and they were always butting heads. Fox despised his arrogance and selfish nature while Wolf couldn't stand Fox's goody two shoes ways.

"W-what do we do?" Slippy stuttered.

"I say we go give Wolf and his goons a thrashing!" Bill exclaimed, getting ready to stand up.

"No, we should wait until something happens. Otherwise we could make it worse." Fox ordered.

"Is that really a good idea?" Fara asked uncertainly.

"I hope so." Fox replied as the lupine and his companions stopped in front of the human's table.

The rest of the lunchroom had gone silent. Wolf's reputation was well known and well founded. So seeing him head towards the new human's table meant that something was about to go down. And they were all curious to see what would happen.

* * *

Alastair had noticed the wolf and two friends long before they decided to meander over to his table. They just felt _off_ to him, he could feel impending violence leaking off their auras and he knew that a confrontation was fast approaching.

As they got closer he reached a hand into his jacket. It was possible that they were terrorists about to make their make but it was highly unlikely. If anything they were thugs that wanted to throw their weight around. It mattered not; if they tried anything they would regret it…severely.

The trio stopped at his table and the lunchroom's silence was deafening. Alastair focused his attention on the table, seeing if they would just leave. But it was not meant to be. There was a loud bang as the wolf slammed his paws onto the table and leaned towards him.

"It looks like that little squirt was right, there _is_ a skinner going to this school!" The lupine chuckled in cynical amusement and looked down at the seated human.

Alastair ignored him.

"Hey…skinner…"

The wolf slammed a paw next to the human's hand, claws grating on the metal as he leaned in closer. "I'm talking to you. Don't you know? It's impolite to ignore people."

Alastair looked up from the table and into the lupine's blazing purple irises. The wolf was covered in mangy grey fur and had a white stripe running down his head and an outfit of clothes that matched his aggressive mentality. Alastair did nothing and continued to stare in an obvious challenge. He had faced down ruthless warlords, drug cartels, and a variety of terrorist groups, so he refused to be cowed by some pathetic school bully and his meager attempt at intimidating him.

The wolf chuckled mockingly, turning to the chameleon to his left. "Would you look here, Leon? This human's got quite a pair of balls on him." He shifted his attention back to Alastair and grinned savagely. "Are you challenging me, skinner? Because you know, I've met your kind before. And from what I've seen they're all a bunch of sackless assholes."

It looked like the lupine desired a fight, and Alastair would be happy to oblige. He hadn't had a good one in quite some time.

Slowly, the human stood up from his table and relaxed his muscles as he readied himself. Alastair noticed that the lylatian was almost the same height as him. It was quite impressive actually, most tended to be on the shorter side from what he noticed.

"You _are_ challenging me!" The wolf said in disbelief, looking back to both his friends. "Can you believe this Panther? The guy wants a fight."

"You posture too much and your threats could use a little work. I've heard better from my dead uncle." Alastair scolded his opponent with a disparaging sneer.

At that the lupine was enraged, how dare some human punk talk to him like that. He was the power in this school and he was going to make sure the little shit would know that. Barring his fangs in a howl of rage, he prepared to attack. "Why you little FUCKER!"

He reeled a paw back and swiped it towards Alastair's face as hard as he could. The human easily dodged it, leaning back and letting it fly through unoccupied air. Alastair caught the overreaching paw and pulled it towards him, upsetting the wolf's center of balance. As he tripped forwards, Alastair delivered a powerful fist into his gut, lifting him into the air and throwing roughly him to the floor in a pile of tangled limbs.

Everything froze as soon as the lupine hit the ground and both his friends gaped in disbelief. No one had ever beat wolf, especially with one hit.

As soon as they recovered their mental faculties they attacked. "You'll regret that skinner!" The reptilian warned and threw a heavy handed punch his way. In response, Alastair lifted a hand and deflected the momentum of the attack into the feline next to him. The lizard looked shocked when his fist cracked into his friend's muzzle and not the human. But he wasn't given any time to contemplate what he did because Alastair backhanded him with a fist, sending him crashing down to the floor next to the wolf.

Yet the panther wasn't done yet and after he recovered from his blow he sent a kick into Alastair's chest. The human caught the cat's booted hindpaw and used his augmented strength to lift him into the air and over his shoulder to smash the feline into the table, knocking him out instantly.

"THAT'S IT YOU'RE DEAD!"

Alastair looked over his shoulder and saw that the wolf had regained consciousness and charged him at full speed.

Before the furious lupine could do anything Alastair flung his right hand out and enveloped it around the wolf's esophagus, cutting off his inarticulate roar. Then he lifted the wolf up in his hand and brought his muzzle up to his face, the wolf's shoes dangled uselessly in the air, unable to reach the ground. Throughout the entire fight the human's expression had never changed from one of indifference. But on the inside his blood was aflame and it took everything within his power not to crush the lupine's larynx in his merciless grip. He had to forcefully remind himself that he was just a school bully and not a terrorist. As annoying as he and his friends had been, they did not deserve to die. Besides, he would fall his mission if he killed them. He had never failed a mission before and he had no desire to do so now.

"Listen to me _mutt._ " Alastair snarled sinisterly. "If you so much as approach me again and attempt to accost me for no good reason, _**I will leave your flea-bitten carcass on the floor**_! Are we clear?" He increased the pressure on the wolf's throat.

The lupine nodded rapidly, genuine terror in his eyes as he choked out. "Y-yes."

"Good, I'm glad we came to an understanding." Alastair said with a satisfied nod and casually released the wolf onto the floor where he clutched his throat and started to cough gruffly.

Alastair turned away from the three disabled thugs and walked out of the silent lunchroom.

* * *

"….."

"….."

"…"

"Ho….ly…..shit….." Falco mumbled quietly in complete and utter disbelief. "D-did I just see that right? Did that just actually happen?" The avian looked around to his friends, beak gaped open.

"That human just wiped the fucking floor with Wolf, Leon, and Panther!" Bill clarified with a shit eating grin on his muzzle, the pitbull's tail wagging violently. "Did you see that?!" He _picked up_ _and threw_ Panther! How awesome is that?!" Bill fist pumped enthusiastically. "It was about time someone taught that asshole a lesson!"

"The only one who's ever managed to beat Wolf was Fox!" Slippy exclaimed in amazement.

"That was quite impressive." Miyu said thoughtfully, tail flicking languidly. "He must be _very_ strong." There was a hint of hunger in her observation. The human had unwittingly placed himself on her radar. She now had her sights set on him.

"So much for being scared." Fay muttered with a sigh, her fleeting romantic fantasy utterly shattered.

"That was a lot of anger for one guy to have." Fara said to herself. She could see it in his eyes. His face may have been free of emotion but his eyes were anything but. She could feel the murderous rage in them from her seat across the room. It made her shiver just to think about it. And Miyu was right. There was a lot ofprimal power in his actions.

Fox had been quite up till this point. He was busying thinking about how Alastair had dealt with wolf. That level of destruction was something he expected from a hardened black-ops warrior rather than a cadet from a military academy. He fought like some of the mercenaries he had seen working with his father. He was starting to think that not everything about this Alastair character was plain to the eyes. There was a lot hidden that he felt the need to uncover.

Fox knew one thing for certain however.

The human had just made a reputation for himself.

Alastair stared at his reflection in the mirror of the boy's bathroom. Now that his anger had cooled down he realized how much of a mistake he had made. He had been far too close to losing it. And it was the first day of his assignment to boot. He could not afford to be making such grievous errors so soon or ever.

' _Stupid, stupid, stupid…a rooky mistake!'_ He scolded himself harshly.

He was highly trained and could have handled the situation with far more efficiency. His attacks had been sloppy and full of anger. While true he was in no real danger from school bullies, such tactics could prove fatal on a more experienced foe, such as a NVR terrorist.

' _I'm such an idiot!'_

The worst thing of all that came from this was he had garnered attention to himself, even more than for just being a human in a lylatian school. It was entirely possible that his exploit would be on social media sites all over the extranet before the school day was even over. And any competent terrorist group would see him for what he truly was if they happened upon them. It was an inexcusable failure that he would have to report to command. And he was not looking forward to it at all.

"Uh….h-hello."

Alastair turned to the frightened and pitiful sounding voice and saw a young tiger striped feline, except his fur was white and black rather than orange. If his estimate was correct the kid was no older than fifteen. Whatever his age may have been, he was standing in the bathroom with Avitus, awkwardly flicking his striped tail.

With a sigh the human turned away from the mirror and focused on the kid. "Yeah?"

' _What the hell does he want?'_ Now was not a good time to be disturbing him.

The white tiger clutched his bag tighter to his chest. "Uh….I…uh….just wanted to say thank you…and apologize"

' _What?'_

"What are you talking about kid?" Alastair asked in confusion.

"Wolf and his friends always picked on us younger students. And so seeing him getting his butt handed to him today….thank you." The kid replied with a weak smile, tail flickering uneasily behind him, but then he frowned. "Also, I was the one who told Wolf about you, he made me do it."

Alastair was confused. All he had done was simply defending himself (albeit with excessive force), something like that didn't deserve any thanks. And it was hard to blame the little guy for folding into the lupine's pressure. He didn't have years of combat experience and training to rely on.

Seeing the confusion on his face, the kid elaborated. "What you did will put Wolf out of the picture for a little while, at least until his pride is restored. And that gives us a much needed break. So thank you…for kicking wolf's ass."

Not knowing what else to do, Alastair nodded slowly and replied. "You're welcome. And don't worry about telling that Wolf guy, I understand."

The tiger's tentative smile broadened. "Thanks, and my name's Scout, what's yours?"

"Alastair."

"Nice to meet you, Alastair." The kid said as he turned and left the bathroom, leaving the human to his thoughts.

' _Curious….'_

His next class after lunch was physical education, which should be easy for him. It would be no worse than an average day back in basic training. After the bell rang he stepped out into the hallway and headed towards the outside of the school building. The PE center was outside near a large open field. It was a small circular building, big enough for what he assumed to be the boy's and girl's locker rooms and the coach's office. It was probably the only class of the day he was the least unenthusiastic about going to. It would provide him a perfect environment to train and maintain his more physically demanding skills.

As he walked the hallways, he noticed that the other students were giving him far more space before and seemed to eye him with more caution.

' _Fan fucking tastic…'_

Alastair crossed the field and entered the PE building. Inside were packs of both male and female students conversing before heading to their respective locker rooms. He had no time or desire to mingle and so he cut a path through them and entered the male section.

' _Oh god….'_

The smell of the large open room reminded him of a zoo he had fought in three years ago. During the battle he had been forced to take cover inside one of the exhibits as a patrol screen searched for him. The best he could describe that smell was dirty, sour, eyewatering, and most of all severely unpleasant. _'Don't they wash this place?'_ If they did they would probably need a power washer and several gallons of bleach and any other disinfectant they could get their paws on.

Alastair saw the coach's office near the doors and made his way to it. More than likely he would need a gym outfit. He knocked firmly and backed up, waiting for at least three minutes before it opened and a very grumpy looking lion stood in front of him.

"What do you want?" He demanded gruffly.

"I need an outfit sir." Alastair did not want to be disrespectful. After all, he would have to deal with this guy for a long time to come.

"Eh, I suppose you're going to need a pair of shorts without a hole in it?" The feline grunted disinterestedly as he scratched at his mane. It looked like he did not care much about the fact the kid he was talking to was a human. In fact, he just looked bored.

"That's right sir."

The cat muttered under his breath and rolled his slitted eyes. "Wait here…" He closed the door abruptly in his face and Alastair waited for what seemed like an eternity before it opened again. He tossed the pair of clothes in his paw at him and Alastair barely caught it. "Don't lose them; it's the only pair we got." And with that encouraging order, the feline closed the door to his office.

Alastair shrugged and turned away, heading to the aisles of lockers. By this time other students started to file in boisterously, shouting and tussling with each other as they walked inside. Alastair paid them no mind and walked all the way down to the back corner of the lockers and chose the one farthest from the doors, and the furthest place from whatever the source of that godforsaken smell was. He studied the little metal cabinet built into the wall.

It looked like each locker had a ten digit code that the user picked. He entered in his combo and it was saved down to the pad as the light blinked green and there was a soft click. As he started to get ready to undress, he heard a multitude of familiar voices approach.

"We should introduce ourselves, try to be friendly."

"I don't know Slippy, he doesn't seem like he wants any friends." Bill replied to the toad's suggestion as they headed towards the lockers holding their PE outfits.

"Maybe he just didn't want to talk to an ass like you." Falco retorted with a chuckle, and promptly received a light slug in response.

"If there's any ass here, it's you!"

"Calm down Bill, I'm sure he was just joking." Fox came in as the mediator, holding his pas up in the air as he turned to Falco. "Come on man, tone it down for once, it's the first day of school."

"Alright sure no problem, Fox." The avian muttered.

"Good…now that we got that out of the way, where do you guys want to set up shop?"

"How about somewhere away from this smell." Slippy groaned, clutching his nose in an effort to keep it out.

"I agree with the toad, I don't know why the school never cleans this place up. It smells like death and ass!" Falco grumbled as he copied the toad's movement, holding his beak and taking shallow breaths.

"The back!" Bill suggested quickly, heading towards the very end of the locker room with his friends in close pursuit.

They made it all the way down to the end of the area and the smell lessened to a much more tolerable level. "Gah, that's better." Fox exclaimed as he released the breath he had been holding inside.

"Hey look, it's the human!" Slippy whispered loudly.

Fox looked up and saw that the human was there, standing at the last locker in the row and shuffling with his cloths. It looked like they managed to find him an outfit without a tail hole. _'That must have been hard.'_

"What do we do?" Bill asked his friends in a hushed tone.

"How about nothing?" Falco replied as he took a locker across from the human and started to get changed without a backwards glance. He didn't get what the big deal was about the human. Sure he kicked Wolf's ass and the lupine's two friends as well in the process. But besides that and his strange appearance the avian didn't see why everybody was in an uproar.

Slippy shrugged uncertainly and followed the avian, taking the locker next to him. Bill chose one in the same area but farther from the human then the others. He didn't want a reoccurrence of his awkward conversation. He would leave the introductions to Fox, he was always better at it then he was.

Fox gathered his courage and walked over to the human, taking the locker right next to him. As he put in his code the vulpine glanced over. Alastair was folding his leather jacket neatly and placing it inside his locker. Fox decided now was as good a time as any.

"Hey, do you remember me?"

The human looked over to the vulpine and examined him with his steely blue eyes. "Yes, you're Fox Mccloud, the guy that asked the questions."

Fox chuckled awkwardly. "Heh…yeah that's me."

Alastair nodded and turned away, focusing back once more in his locker.

Fox stripped out of his clothes and slid on the gym shorts and shirt. He picked at the shirt as he tried to get it to sit comfortably on his fur. The rough material always managed to get caught on his fur and irritate it.

As he finished he looked around and saw that his friends had just finished up and that the human was just in the process of taking off his shirt. The vulpine's eyes widened in shock as the human's torso was revealed.

' _Holy shit!'_

Alastair's chest was packed with streamlined muscle. But most surprising of all was the myriad of old and fresh scars on his front and back that his furless body could not hide. It looked like the human had traveled through hell and back and Fox wondered how a teenager could develop such an abundance of scar tissue.

If the human noticed the looks he was getting from Fox and his friends he chose to ignore it as he slid out of his pants and finished changing into his PE outfit. Once he was done he closed the locker door slowly and primed the coded lock.

With that done he sat down at the bench next to his locker and started to wait for the dismissal bell that would let them know to head out to the fields.

Fox decided to sit beside him and tried to figure out a plan to get him to talk.

Yet it seemed that the human had anticipated his motives.

"What do you want?"

Caught a little of guard, Fox searched for a response. And after a few moments he found it. "I just wanted to talk. I know what it's like to be thrown into a new environment."

The human huffed questioningly.

"My family used to live on Papetoon, but we moved to corneria a few years ago and I remember feeling completely lost. But thanks to the friends I made, everything worked out."

"I'm not here to make friends." Alastair grunted dismissively.

Fox frowned. _'What's this guy's deal?'_

"Then why are you here?"

At that, the human sighed. "Fine…what if I was?"

Fox's frown was immediately lifted. "That's the spirit! Let me introduce you to my friends." _'Finally, progress!'_ The vulpine lifted a paw and brought it in a sweeping motion from right to left. "That's Slippy, then there's Bill and Falco, the two blockheads that can't seem to get along." Fox added knowingly.

Alastair inclined his head briefly in each of their directions, what must have been his version of hello.

"Stick with us, and we'll help you get acclimatized. After all, it must be hard getting used to all of this." Bill added with a cheerful smirk.

The human nodded again and sat silently, much to their chargin.

' _Back to square one…'_ Fox thought with a sigh.

After a minute of prickly silence, the bell rang and they could hear the other students shuffling out of the locker room.

"We better get going." Slippy suggested, standing up and turning to leave. He looked pretty eager to leave.

Fox and the others got up and started to exit the locker room when the vulpine turned back to the human and smiled. 'Come on, let's get going."

After a moment, Alastair nodded and rose from the bench, walking over to stand by Fox. The vulpine's grin increased.

Alastair followed Fox out of the locker room with a ponderous expression. Why these lylatians insisted on befriending him baffled the human. What was the point? Why did they care so much? He preferred it when they kept their distance. But, they also provided an opportunity for him. He knew from observation that this Fox character and his friends were close with Fara Phoenix, and so if he managed to get…close to them, then he would be able to stay closer to his charge without drawing unwanted attention.

' _None of this had been in the briefing.'_

He sighed and stepped out of the locker room and into the bright sunny field. It smelt of freshly cut grass and pesticide. ' _At least that horrible stench is gone.'_

Alastair spied the coach at the opposite end of the field, the rest of the PE class lined up beside him. On the other side of the field there was a lioness and the line of girls in. He could see that Falco, Slippy, and Bill were already hightailing it to where the coach was.

"Come one, we don't want to be late!" Fox called out behind him as he started to run.

"Why?" He asked curiously as he jogged alongside the vulpine.

"Mr. Darion doesn't like it when students are late. Believe me. We don't want to be last ones there. How about a race? Loser gets to deal with the coach's wrath." Fox chuckled as he increased his speed and started to fly down the field.

Alastair felt a small measure of excitement course through his system. As uncomfortable as he was with all of this, the human never turned down a challenge.

He pistoned his legs forward and threw everything he had into sprinting to the coach and outrunning Fox. Tufts of grass flew in the air as his boots ate up the distance between him and the vulpine. He could hear Fox chuckling to himself as he ran and look back over his shoulder, ready to drop a smug boast. But when he saw the human rapidly approaching any words he might have said caught up in his throat and he gulped.

' _Shit, he's fast!'_

Alastair allowed himself a small smile as he blasted past Fox and blazed a trail across the field, passing Falco, Slippy, and Bill.

"What the f-" He heard the avian choke out as Alastair zipped past him.

Alastair slowed down as he approached the line of students and jogged to a stop near the front of the line. He could feel faint trickles of sweat pour down his face and his heart was pumping in a fast steady rhythm. The excess energy slowly ebbed out of him and he was thankful for his genetic enhancements. Otherwise it would have been extremely unlikely for him to pass Fox or the others. The short sprint made him feel more relaxed and laid back, but not much. It was just enough so that he was slightly less uncomfortable with his situation.

He looked to the left to see the coach standing there with a faintly impressed expression on his muzzle. "Get in line."

It looked like it only carried to his features though.

Alastair nodded and turned to the line, slipping in next to an orange tabby cat and an anteater, judging by the long proboscis on his face. Soon, the others managed to arrive and file in. First was Falco, then Bill followed by Slippy. Fox was the last one to make it. He had been too far back to catch up in time, and he had been seconds behind Slippy.

Fox's posture stooped as he realized that he was the last one to make it and he bore a grimace as he approached the coach.

The lion tutted in disappointment and looked down at the vulpine. "What happened back there, Mccloud?"

Fox shrugged.

The coach shook his muzzle. "Looks like a first for you, Mccloud. You know what this means."

Fox nodded with a wince. "Yes coach."

Alastair was starting to feel a slight amount of guilt…a very slight amount. He had technically cheated, not that they would know that. But all was fair in love and war.

The lion turned over his shoulder and barked out orders to a cat and a mouse standing in line. "Tom, Jerry, go get the ring."

The two nodded superfluously and rushed to the small shack that Alastair had failed to notices on his way over. But he did notice all the eager expressions on the other student's muzzles and he felt trepidation build inside him. _'What the heck is the ring?'_ The simplicity of its name and the reaction the students had at its mention did not set his mind at ease. He watched as Fox groaned and slumped. So he knew for certain that it was not something pleasant.

His wondering was answered when the cat and mouse returned with a small rectangular pad, handing it to the coach who took it with a wide grin.

' _I thought it was a ring.'_

The cat turned to the line of students and tossed the pad onto the ground as he started to speak. "It looks like Fox has volunteered himself for a bout in the ring, but who could possibly rise to the challenge?" As he asked, the small pad began to split open and assemble into the vague form of a boxing ring.

Instantly, Alastair's foreboding rocketed upwards and he felt a pang of unease. _'Don't you dare!'_

Yet he watched in helpless finality as the Lion's eyes sifted through the line of students and settled in on him with piercing precision. 'You! Human, since you were the first one to make it. It's only fitting that you be the contestant."

' _Motherfucker!'_

All around him, hushed whispers from the students began to rise as they considered the prospect.

"The human's going to fight Fox!"

"Dude, it's going to be epic!"

"Who's going to win?"

"My money's on Fox."

"Ten creds says he whoops the human's ass!"

'Twenty says the human wins!"

"Deal!"

The lion growled and motioned forwards. "Come on kid, we haven't got all day.

Alastair held back a groan and stepped forwards, heading towards the ring to stand next to Fox. The vulpine smiled weakly at him.

"Looks like we both suffer the coach's wrath anyways?" Fox chuckled forcefully.

Alastair nodded with a small grim smile. "So it would appear."

Fox looked to his left and groaned, slapping a padded palm onto his muzzle. "Ugh, I didn't think it could be worse, but I was wrong."

Alastair looked in the direction the vulpine had and saw that the lioness coach and all the female PE students were making their way over. In the group he spied out Fara and her friends. _'At least I could keep a better eye on her._ ' He thought morosely.

"What do we have here, the ring, and on the first day? You're starting a little over the top my dear." The female lion drawled as she stopped beside the male. It was safe to assume that they were a mated pair.

The coach shrugged. "Got to keep them on their toes, and I wouldn't mind a little show."

' _That's…a little messed up.'_ Even he could tell that, and he was a mercenary.

"Well in that case I think we all would like to tune in." The lioness replied with a grin.

"Alright, get in the ring!" The coach ordered and the duo climbed in. The ropes of the ring were made up of beams of energy that were hard to the touch without shocking them. All of this seemed a little crazy, but Alastair supposed that it was a military academy after all.

"Good luck." Fox muttered as he walked to the opposite corner.

Alastair nodded at that and took his place. _'This is one crazy ass school.'_


	5. Chapter 5

The Assignment

Chapter 4: School Life II

Alastair and Fox stared each other down from the opposite ends of the ring, both wearing grim expressions on their unyielding features. It may have just been a simple school monitored fight, but to them it was no joke. Fox had been taught by his father to always give his all in everything he did. Alastair had spent his entire life training to be the perfect soldier. Both Fox and Alastair were guided by their unbending determination, and the human could see himself in the vulpine's eye. Instinctively, he knew this would be no easy fight.

Fox was cautious of fighting the human. He had seen what Alastair did to Wolf, what he was capable of. Fox would have to maintain his initial momentum once combat started in order to ensure that Alastair remained off balance and with any luck keep him guessing. That should hopefully give him an advantage. Otherwise there was no telling what would happen. The vulpine was nowhere near eager to face Alastair, but he was confident he could at least hold his own if anything.

Likewise, Alastair was wary about fighting the vulpine. He had no information on Fox and therefore was unaware of his skills, strengths, or weaknesses. The human would be flying blind, and he hated having a lack of intelligence. It may just be a school fight, but Alastair could not refrain from feeling just as guarded as if he was fighting a life and death brawl. He had been trained to fight…to kill as efficiently and quickly as possible. Even when he had been in training death was a possible outcome if he slipped up in the slightest. He only ever fought at his maximum potential, there was no middle ground. But it looked like he would have to try today. He had no intention or desire of hurting the vulpine. It would not do well for his mission. Alastair had to become friends with Fox in order to get closer to his objective. And so wiping the floor with him would not be conductive to starting a mutual friendship. So, he decided to give Fox a fair chance, abstaining from using his genetic enhancements and therefore fighting at only three quarters of his complete strength, which was still formidable.

Alastair looked to the side where the coach's and students stood. It looked like Fara and her other female friends had joined with the rest of the group he was beginning to associate with her. He looked away from them and back to the coach, who was standing with some sort of stopwatch and holding his whistle in-between his fangs, the blue cord dangling on his chest.

"All right, the rules are simple." He spoke with the whistle in his maw. "No breaking bones and no killing each other. And try not to bleed too much or at least try not to get it on the ring if you can."

' _That's pretty straightforward...and yet disturbing'_

Fox and Alastair nodded, turning back to face each other.

"Good, now…fight!" The lion blew the whistle in his maw and the match started.

"May the best man win." Fox said as he inclined his muzzle.

Alastair nodded in return and almost immediately ducked as the vulpine's hindpaw flew past his face. The human swerved backwards and rolled across the ground as Fox brought his boot crashing down on where he had just been standing. Even as he was getting up, he was forced to block a fist that was sailing towards his head.

' _He's much more of a threat than I anticipated.'_ Alastair thought as he blocked a kick aimed at his chest, tossing the hindpaw back and giving himself a second to recuperate. As he was forced to dodge another wave of kicks and punches from the seemingly liquid vulpine, Alastair realized what his plan was. _'He's trying to keep me off balance...clever'_ He must have come to the conclusion that it would be his best chance after seeing his fight with Wolf. It was too bad that Alastair was willing to go to any lengths in order to achieve victory. _'This…is going to hurt.'_ The next time Fox launched a furred fist towards Alastair's stomach, he let the blow connect.

He rasped noiselessly as he felt the wind get bashed out of his lungs and a sharp flair of pain shoot through his chest. At first Fox looked victorious after landing the first blow of the match, but his gloating smirk quickly vanished when he saw that the human was not nearly as fazed as he thought he would have been. Instead, he raised his own fist and slammed it into Fox's muzzle, sending him crashing to the ground in a disorganized bundle.

Fox rolled backwards and vaulted back up to his hindpaws with a thoughtful expression. He would not fall for the same trick twice. Fox took a moment to breathe and launched himself back into the fray, tossing a flurry of punches that Alastair blocked fluidly, rolling around them and retaliating with his own barrage that the vulpine barley managed to escape unscathed.

Alastair was ready to finish his attack when he felt a fluffy furry stick slap him across the face and his vision went orange. He reeled backwards, spluttering as he tried to spit out the orange hairs clogging his mouth. In his unguarded state he felt a trio of powerful kicks land across his chest, throwing him to the ground. Alastair groaned and held back a snarl. _'He used his fucking tail, dirty bastard…well played.'_

He grinned.

Alastair had to hand it to Fox for using what was available to him. Not that his newfound admiration would prevent him from kicking the fuckers ass.

The human got up to a crouched position and slammed into Fox with his full weight, knocking him to the ground. He felt the vulpine's orange furred arms grasp him under the armpits in an attempt to roll him over but Alastair used a fist to sock him in the kidney, which he knew to be exactly ten centimeters from where a human one was located.

Fox coughed and doubled over, rolling to the left and lashing a hindpaw out as he did so. The blow landed across Alastair's face and sent his vison flashing white momentarily as a high-pitched ringing filled his ears. He shook his head rapidly and lurched to his feet, Fox close behind. Both combatants were panting tiredly and hugging their arms to their chests in pain. Yet fiery determination blazed in the vulpine's glowing emerald eyes and the human's solid bright blue orbs. Neither was willing to give up and so they launched at each other again and descended into a close quarters slug fest. Their movements were a blur as they slammed into each other with closed fists and devastating kicks.

Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, Fox staggered backwards and Alastair did the same in the opposite direction. Both were breathing heavily, the vulpine's left eye was half lidded and Alastair's right leg looked like it was ready to collapse under his weight. A faint trickle of blood ran down his face, courtesy of an accidental scratch that Fox had landed across his brow when Alastair hit him in the gut and caused his paws to reflexively open. Likewise, Fox clutched his left arm gingerly to his chest. Alastair had landed a good hit on the vulpine's elbow and he could still feel the faded pangs of pain that lingered. Both were covered in sweat, Alastair's visible skin shone in the light and Fox's fur was a darker shade of orange.

Alastair nodded grimly to the vulpine, and Fox returned it, and they would have gone at it again if not for the sharp screeching howl of the coach's whistle. They both turned to see the lion standing there, clapping with an extremely impressed smile on his muzzle.

"Goddamn…that was the best fight I've ever seen! And I've been to the big leagues! But as amazing as it was I'm going to have to call it a day. I don't want you two to kill yourselves or each other. And by the looks of it, you've had enough." The coach shook his muzzle in admiration as he looked down at the stopwatch. "At least you both set a new school record, _forty-five minutes_ ; I don't think that'll be topped for a long time. Come on and get out of there."

' _Forty-five minutes…? Didn't feel that long…'_ Alastair thought absently as he staggered over to the edge of the ring and climbed out. Fox followed after him and the two stood there, observing the other.

Fox had earned Alastair's respect, and you could count the amount of people that gained it on the palm of one hand. The vulpine was easily one of the strongest fighters he came across, and he was not so confident that he would have emerged victorious in the end without resorting to his enhancements. Fox's skills in physical combat were impressive enough to earn his admiration.

Alastair stuck his hand out for the vulpine to shake and had a genuine, if small, smile on his face, which was extremely rare, not that Fox would have known how significant that was. Alastair had very few reasons and instances to smile in his life. And the fight with the vulpine had given him one of those fleeting moments.

"Very impressive, Mccloud, you are a worthy adversary."

Fox nodded and grabbed the human's hand, shaking it as he smiled broadly. "Likewise, Alastair, I think you could even give my father a run for his credits, and he taught me everything I know."

Alastair's smile lessened at the mention of a parent and he released the vulpine's paw. "I'll take that as a compliment. What do we do now?"

As if he had been eavesdropping, the coach answered from behind him. "Well, since you two manage to occupy the majority of the time for today. The last ten minutes will be free."

Alastair turned to face the coach and nodded. He could use the ten minutes to rest. When he realized how long he had been fighting, exhaustion started to creep up on him, and from the look of Fox, he was the same.

The coach placed a paw on Alastair's shoulder and at the unfamiliar and unexpected touch, the human had to hold back the desire to flinch. "I had my doubts about you kid. But keep impressing me like that and I'll have to reconsider them." And with that the coach turned away and barked at all the students standing there. Any warmth in his tone had completely evaporated. "What are you all looking at? The shows over, now scram!"

The crowd of students exploded into movement and the coach walked away, leaving six figures standing there.

"That…was…AWESOME!" Bill shouted as his muzzle split open into a blinding grin. The others were wearing similarly impressed looks. It was not every day one saw something like that. It was clear that both Fox and Alastair were more than competent fighters.

' _They are easily impressed.'_ Alastair thought with mild amusement. If they had seen him at his full strength then he imagined that they would be rendered speechless. But if they saw Arkillian…they would be awed. Arkillian had taught Alastair everything he knew, the man was a peerless warrior both on the ground and as a HMCF pilot. Arkillian was the best mercenary in _Aegis_ and probably would have been a far more suitable candidate for this mission. It was unfortunate that he didn't meet all the requirements. He was far too old to blend into the school.

"It didn't feel that awesome." Fox groaned in response and gently clutched his bruised stomach. Every part of his body hurt, even his tail. The poor furred appendage had been crushed when Alastair stepped on it during the fight.

"Oh suck it up." Falco chuckled in amusement, a smirk clear on his beak. It was not often he saw his friend and rival laid so low, so he was savoring the moment. "It's not that bad."

Fox glared at Falco and retorted caustically. "Yeah, then why don't you fight him?"

"Meh…I don't feel like it." The avian responded with an uncaring shrug.

"You never feel like doing anything!" Katt retorted angrily.

Falco baulked at that, raising his feathered hands defensively. "Whoa, where's this hostility coming from?"

She sighed and looked away, clutching her tail stiffly. "Nowhere…"

Fara, Fay, and Miyu rolled their collective eyes at how clueless the bird could be.

"Say…" Falco muttered thoughtfully, already forgetting what had occurred less than a minute ago. "Where did you learn to fight like that Al…and he's gone." The avian turned to where the human had last been seen and was surprised to see him absent.

Alastair had chosen to leave when they were arguing. He was still tired from his recent fight, and he had no patience left to deal with other people.

"Where'd he go?" Slippy asked in confusion.

"Looks like he flew the coop..." Miyu replied as she looked to her left. Their eyes followed and saw the human walking away, already half way down the field and towards the locker room. "It seems he's not one to stick around and mince words."

"So I've noticed." Fox replied with a disappointed sigh.

"He's kinda making it hard to be friends with him." Fay grumbled in frustration.

"What's his deal anyways?" Fara said with a snort. "I would think he'd be glad that people wanted to befriend him."

"Some people are just…different." Bill replied simply. "My father talks about them sometimes. But usually he's referring to his fellow war veterans, guys who have lost everything. But Alastair's a kid like us, it doesn't make any sense."

"Well, the only way to find out for sure what his problem may be is to get it from the horse's mouth. All we're doing is speculating." Fox jumped in as he rotated his sore shoulders.

"That's not going to be easy." Fay sighed with a slump.

"No…I suspect it won't be." Fox agreed. "But unless you guys want to leave it like it is. We don't have much of a choice."

"I got nothing better to do." Falco replied simply.

"Count me in!" Slippy pipped up.

"Sure, why not." Miyu shrugged.

"I'm game." Bill said confidently.

"If Miyu's in, so am I." Fay said with determination.

The last one left was Fara and after seeing all of their expressions she smirked and rolled her eyes. "No way am I going to be the odd one out, count me in."

And with that the group of friends was set on figuring out the strange human that had mysteriously arrived at their school. It was unfortunate that they had no idea what they were getting into.

* * *

Over the course of the rest of the week, they all made several individual attempts to get to know Alastair. And every single one failed. It was the equivalent to trying to reason with a stone wall. He managed to easily deflect every inquiry and act of friendship. In homeroom, (where they all were in the same class), they tried to convince him to sit with them. But he had stiffly refused, preferring to sit in the far back corner and away from the rest of the class.

Fara, Slippy, and Bill had him in their lylatian class. And they were met with the same stiff resistance. Although the vixen noticed that his stiffness was a fraction less potent when directed at her and she wasn't sure what to think about that.

Math was much the same, and during lunch he did not like when anyone approached him. PE was the only time that he seemed to be at his lowest point of hostility. But it was also when he was the hardest to reach. He either spent his time running on the track (where not one of them had been able to keep up with him), or he was using the workout equipment where his concentration made it all but impossible to communicate.

The last class of the day was astronautics, and Fara, Fox, and Slippy had far too much trouble with that class to try and make friends with him.

The most frustrating think of it all was that he still stuck close to them even as he refuted any friendly advances. He was always within sight or just around the corner. Why he chose to stay so physically close and yet so socially distant confounded them.

But…they finally managed to catch a break on Thursday.

* * *

Slippy was carrying all of his textbooks and huffing and panting as he made his way down the corridor. He was going to be late for his astronautics class. It had taken him longer than usual to redress after PE and so he had to make up for lost time. It was unfortunate really; his day had already been a rough one. He had tried to talk to Alastair in math but got his paper taken away for speaking during a test. Combine that with a particularly demanding period of PE and he was about at his limit to what he could endure in a single day.

' _This day couldn't get any w-'_

The toad was thrown from his train of thought, literally, when he crashed into someone and fell to the floor, scattering his textbooks and papers in a flurry of noise. Slippy looked up to see who he had run into and gulped inaudibly.

' _Why me…?'_

Standing over him with a pissed of frown was Skylar Grime, one of the lesser school bullies. He was not the same caliber as Wolf, but he was high up in the bully hierarchy. The brown furred canine glared down at Slippy and growled. "Watch where you're going mucus breath."

"Right…s-sorry Skylar." Slippy stuttered and reached for his astronautics textbook. But as his webbed fingers landed on the cover, so did the blue shoe of his tormenter.

"Not so fast toad…I think I deserve some… _compensation,_ for you pathetic blundering." Skylar suggested with a sinister chuckle.

"L-like what?" Slippy asked hesitantly.

"Twenty credits should about cover it." The canine replied after a moment of consideration.

"I don't have twenty credits!"

"That's a shame. I suppose ten and a quick beating should be supplementary. Maybe then the bruisers will remind you to be more vigilant eh?"

Slippy cringed and shut his eyes as he waited for the blow to land, but shot them back open when he heard a metallic clang. Skylar's muzzle was smashed against a locker and one of his arms was twisted painfully behind his back. "Fox…?" Slippy wondered, but as he turned his head to his savior he discovered that it was none other than the human, Alastair.

"I agree." The human snarled dangerously. "You should be more vigilant…after all…you never know who may be around the corner." Alastair pulled the canine's muzzle back and slammed it against the locker again before pushing him away. "I suggest you see the error of your ways. If we should cross paths once more, and I see or hear that you are continuing to terrorize students of this school. I will not be as… _lenient_ , as I am today."

Skylar turned to face Alastair, a look of terror on his muzzle. He had heard what the human had done to Wolf, and he had no desire to end up like him. Wolf had still yet to show his muzzle around school since he had been thrashed several days ago. Perhaps it would not be so bad to stop bullying while he was ahead. The canine nodded his head and ducked out, running through the hall and out of sight.

Alastair shook his head and muttered under his breath. "Disgraceful…"

Slippy still sat on the floor among his stuff, thankful that the human had interfered when he did. He didn't fancy going home and explaining his bruises to his dad. His father had too much on his mind with the technology tradeoff then to have to worry about his son's wellbeing. But Slippy was curious. Why had he chosen to help him? Alastair had no problem in rebuffing their offers of friendship, so why would he bother with him at all?"

The toad must have been sitting for a while because the final bell rang and Alastair crouched down beside him and started to pick up his discarded school supplies, further confusing Slippy by his continued assistance.

"You should see about getting a backpack." The human stated simply.

"The straps on my last one broke. I have to get a new one." Slippy replied as he started to pick up his stuff. When it was all cleared off the floor Alastair handed the toad the rest of his materials.

"Thanks."

The human gave a plain nod. "We should get moving. We're already pretty late to class as is. I rather not miss more than necessary."

Slippy returned the gesture. "Right, let's go."

Alastair stuck with the toad all the way to their class. It was true that they both had the same place to go to but the human teen chose to walk with rather than around Slippy.

The toad has some time to think as they made their way to their class and he was starting to understand the human, or at least he hoped he was. It seemed that Alastair was not one to actively seek or participate in friendship, for whatever reasons may be. But he still seemed to want to be around them and it looked like help as well. Perhaps if they convinced him to hang out after school they would have better results. A different environment might be the key to cracking his shell of forced isolation. He would have to talk to Fox and see what he had to say on the matter.

Alastair opened the door to the class and Slippy stepped inside with the human in close second.

The teacher, (a temperamental female badger by the name of Miss Tuft), was in the midst of a lecture when she stopped to look at the new arrivals. Slippy withered under the teacher's displeased glare but Alastair did not as much as twitch.

"You're both late." She stated.

"Yes…" Alastair replied just as dispassionately.

She stared him down for a moment before huffing and turning away. "Take your seats…and it would be wise not to be late again."

Slippy sighed in relief and scurried over to his seat beside Fara and Fox while Alastair casually strolled towards his customary place at the back of the room.

The toad slipped in next to Fara and Fox, placing his stuff on his desk.

"What took so long? And why was Alastair with you?" Fox whispered to the toad, careful not to attract the teacher's wrath.

Slippy quickly explained the recent events leading up to his arrival.

"So…he just helped you out of the blue?" Fox felt guilty for leaving the locker room without waiting for Slippy. But at least Alastair had been there to help, for whatever reason he chose to.

The toad nodded. "He even helped with my stuff and walked back to class with me."

"That doesn't make any sense." Fara muttered in consternation. "He's pretty much spat on all out attempts so far, so why'd he do something now?"

"I had a thought." Slippy replied. Making both vulpines turn to him.

"As crazy as it sounds, I don't think he's really had friends before. That would kinda explain why he's…you know..."

"An antisocial recluse." Fara cut in with a smirk.

"Basically…yeah." The toad agreed.

"If that's true, then why?" Fox asked.

Slippy shrugged.

"Is that your whole idea?"

"No. I was thinking. We might have better luck if we managed to get him to hang out with us after school."

"And how would we do that?" Fara demanded. "We can't even convince him during school. What makes you think we'd have better luck trying to get him to come along afterwards?"

"Maybe if we knew what he liked to do, we could persuade him to come along."

"And how would be find that out?"

"All we got to do is think about what we already know about him."

Fox took a moment to think. "Well, he said he liked flying, martial arts, and physical conditioning. Besides that we know he was an auxiliary pilot and that's pretty much the extent of information we have."

"I know!" Slippy whispered loudly. Almost immediately he was smacked upside the head by an electronic pen. The toad winced and rubbed his head, turning to see the teacher standing at the front of the classroom by the board, her left paw holding a tablet and her right empty.

"No talking during a lecture." She scolded.

"Sorry Miss Tuft." The toad said with a groan.

Once she was satisfied that he had learned his lesson she turned away and started to talk once more about the history of astronautics. Slippy waited until a sufficient amount of time had passed before he risked talking once more.

"Anyways…" He said quietly, glancing back to the teacher. "There's a new action flick that came out this week. It's about a fighter squadron in the unification war. There's a chance we could get him to come along and see it. It should hit most of the categories he might like.

Fox nodded. "Alright sounds like a good idea. Let's talk about it with the others after class."

Fara groaned.

"What?" Fox asked, turning to her.

"Why are we going through all this effort to become friends with this human?"

"Everyone deserves a chance, Fara." The other vulpine responded firmly. "If it's true that he's never had friends before, then we could at least make the effort and try. If we fail, then we fail. But at least we did something."

The vixen looked back at Alastair. He was sitting in the back of the class fiddling with his communicator. And everyone around him was doing their best to ignore his presence, as if he did not exist. She tried to put herself in his shoes. He was alone on an alien world, and even if he seemed not to care, she imagined that deep down he was a lost soul, kinda like her.

She felt out of place. Before Fox and the others came along, the rest of the school made her feel like a pariah. Most were jealous of her family's fortune and thought that she had everything in her life handed to her. No one made the effort to be her friend then. And the other girls had often picked on her, tormenting the vixen endlessly every day. For her, school had been hell without her friends and she couldn't imagine going through it without them.

Alastair probably had it worse.

He was not only a transfer student, but he was a complete outsider. At least Fara was the same species as everyone else on the planet. Alastair was not. In fact, it was likely that he was the only human. From what she learned of him his whole family was dead, killed in some war she had never heard of. At the very least she could rely on her parents, as often as they were gone she still had them to help her. He was about as alone as someone could hope not to be.

The vixen sighed,

"I hate it when you're right."

Fox grinned. "That's the spirit."

"So…" She said. "Who's going to be the lucky one to ask him?"

"Why not you…?" Slippy suggested as the idea dawned on him. "Of everyone, he seems to be the least hostile towards you."

"What are you talking about?" She demanded stiffly, long triangular ears twitching in agitation.

"Every time you interacted with him, he responded with a lesser amount of rudeness." The toad replied simply. "Statistically, you have the best chance of getting the desired answer."

"How can you tell that? I haven't seen any difference."

"It's very small."

Fara scoffed.

"Come one, just ask him. It can't be that bad." Fox pressed.

The vixen huffed and folded her arms across her chest. "Fine…when am I doing this?"

"Why not during lunch on Friday?" Slippy recommended.

"It's a good a time as any I suppose." She muttered in resignation. It looked like they were set on their plan. And a small part of her was interested in finally talking to the strange human. There was something about him that…resonated, with her. And she could not quite place why.

"So it's settled." Fox grinned and clapped his paws together. The noise attracted the attention of the teacher who beaned the vulpine with an accurate pen toss.

"What did I say earlier, Mccloud?"


End file.
